Demons Can Love Too
by BlackBee
Summary: During Pein's attack the Kyuubi no Kitsune accidentally gets released. Read how this changes everything. KyuuNaru. Warning: Yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

New Story!

EDIT2: For this story I am using the ENGLISH dub as a source. That means English spelling for things, English nicknames, and no Japanese honorifics. This is for no other reason than 'for fun'...cause I actually like the English dub. Except for 'Kyuubi'. That's easier to see as a name than 'Nine Tails'. Though maybe I'll have Naruto call him that ('Nine Tails') until he finds out his name of course.

Please enjoy anyway!

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><p>IthurtsIthurtsitHURTS!<p>

And it would stop hurting if that slippery bastard would just die already.

Him, with the red hair and the piercings on his face. He needed to die so that the pain could end.

But this stupid rock was holding him back! He needed to get loose. He needed to unleash all of his power and get loose! He needed to…stop and wonder what this feeling is. Why it felt like he was about to...

Throw up?

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><p>It was at that point that the eight-tailed beast inside of the giant rock trashed about, roaring in clear confusion and pain. Pain stared up unemotionally at it, but his eyes were filled with weariness. Just what was the beast doing now? And would it affect things in the future?<p>

His eyes widened when the eight-tailed kitsune started to glow red and he quickly ducked for cover when there was a blinding red light that brought a painful burn to the land. For a few minutes as Pain hid behind a sturdy rock, the air around him burned and it was too bright to even keep his eyes opened. Good thing this was technically a dead body he controlled.

Elsewhere Sakura, Neji, Tenten, and the Hyuuga bodyguard Koh, stood around Hinata's injured body. Sakura was doing her best to heal her and it appeared to be working. But then Neji, who was staring concernedly at Hinata, abruptly looked up and with his byakugan activated, saw a dangerous red chakra heading straight towards them. Fast.

"We need to get out of here!" He shouted.

"But Hinata isn't fully healed yet!" Sakura replied as she kept healing the Hyuuga heiress. Off close by there was a large toad and next to him was a shivering Katsyuua.

"Neji Hyuuga is right Sakura. Something happened to Naruto! We need to get out of here quickly!"

"What?" Sakura exclaimed. _'Naruto…'_ She thought concerned as she paused in healing Hinata and stared in the direction of her friend. She was broken out of her trance when Tenten grabbed her arm.

"Don't _you_ think about recklessly running into danger too!" She exclaimed pulling Sakura to her feet. Sakura saw Neji had picked up Hinata and was carrying her in his arms.

"But-" She started looking in the direction of Naruto once more. She didn't know where Kakashi was. Sasuke was still a traitor. Naruto was all she had right now and the last thing she wanted to do was stand aside while something was happening to him. But the ANBU who was stationed there appeared in front of her.

"You are Lady Tsunade's apprentice aren't you? We need your skill to keep helping to heal the injured. We can't have you putting yourself in danger. If it needs to be said, it looks like that Naruto kid has gotten a lot stronger. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Sakura didn't necessarily believe this ANBU who had never seen her teammate in action until now.

"Katsuyaa?"

"I can't tell you what's going on. It's all a big blur of red and I don't know what. But I can feel that Naruto's still alive," the slug answered.

Sakura hesitated. The red worried her but if Katsuyaa said Naruto was still alive then that was good. The ANBU was right that Naruto was a lot stronger than he used to be. Hopefully, she was just underestimating him.

"Sakura we have to go," Neji pointed out looking worriedly at the fast coming chakra.

The pink-haired medic nodded her head and then winced in pain when she felt the air around her burn. The others winced and grunted in pain as well.

"This…pain…what is up with the air?" Tenten gasped out. Neji gritted his teeth.

"It's chakra! We have to get out before we burn!" he pointed out. In his arms Hinata whimpered.

"Lady Hinata!" He called out to his cousin in worry. Gamakichi quickly turned his back towards them.

"Hurry up and get on my back! I'll take you all to safety! This heat isn't affecting me that much," the toad said. It was true that his skin was much tougher than the humans' skin, but honestly he didn't know how much longer his added toughness would last him against this burn.

All of the humans nodded and quickly clambered onto the toad before he hopped away to safety.

Back at the battlefield, Pain was barely keeping himself together in this heat. He was burning chakra as well using an Almighty Push just to keep the bulk of the heated chakra away from him. He wondered if he would run out and have to retreat when the chakra suddenly stopped moving around him.

He was confused and tense for a few seconds as he opened his eyes and saw the red chakra sit eerily still. He kept his jutsu up and it turned out to be a good idea for the chakra suddenly blew back against him towards the source. The pressure was pushing against his Almighty Push and his arms were shaking just trying to keep the jutsu up. His vision became a blur of red but at least the heat didn't hurt his eyes anymore.

Finally, after what felt like minutes, all of the chakra was behind him. He released the jutsu and took a couple of seconds to breathe heavily and regain his breath. Things weren't looking too good for him. He felt too drained after all of that. He had no idea how he would keep up against the Kyuubi jinchuuriki now. But he had to try at least. Failure wasn't an option and as long as he still had chakra, even a little, it would stay that way.

Pain slowly and carefully turned his body around and peaked behind the rock. He was shocked by what he saw.

The red chakra was flickering about crazily, but it also seemed to be compressing into one form. Underneath all of the chakra, lying down between the rubble of the rock that once held him at bay was the shadowy form of what had to be the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. It was too dark and the chakra too bright to make out the detailed characteristics, but Pain was sure it was him because who else could it be?

But now there was the question of what the chakra was doing. It wasn't forming around the boy like Pain thought it should. Instead, it was forming _on top_ of the body. Whatever was going on was certainly going to be trouble for Pain. He thought about sending an Almighty Push in the direction of the chakra in an attempt to stop it from doing whatever it was it was doing, but Pain was low on chakra. And this chakra had to be the volatile chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune itself. There was little doubt in Pain's mind that an Almighty Push against that would do him little, if any good.

All he could do was sit behind his incredibly sturdy rock and watch helplessly as the chakra formed. He had so many ideas in his head about what the chakra could be doing, but none of them could even come close to what actually happened.

Pain's eyes widened and his jaw slackened in shock as the chakra took on a human form. Even after all the abuse his eyes have gone through already, Pain could clearly see that was definitely a man, or at least a teenager as the build seemed to be the same as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, squatting on top of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's body.

The volatile chakra was simmering down as more and more went into the figure before finally, it was all gone. With its disappearance Pain could finally start to make out what the figure looked like.

He paled when he saw a curtain of red hair, tan skin, and dark whisker marks.

And when the figure raised his(it was _definitely_ a 'he') head and Pain's Rinnengan met blood red eyes with slitted pupils, Pain knew he was fucked.

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><p>Did you like it? I feel it's different than how I've written before but I'm not sure lol.<p>

For those of you who read my other stories FEAR NOT! I actually have the half of 'From A to Z''s H done and half of chapter 5 for TINL done. And...something I shouldn't say because it's a surprise :)!

EDIT: I am officially doing this by myself :P.

Edit 2: Revised to get rid of typos and make things flow better.

So let me know what you think so far!


	2. Chapter 2

And finally here's chapter 2!

Sorry it took so long. But I hope you at least enjoy this!

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><p>Pain had no time to react. He had seen the creature glance at the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and only closed his eyes to blink when he found himself slammed onto the ground on his back.<p>

There was a large hand wrapped around his neck squeezing so tightly that Pain found it incredibly hard to talk. He gasped and brought his own hands up to push away the hand around his neck and while doing so opened his eyes.

It was very rare for Pain to feel fear. There was only the fear of his dreams of true peace never coming true. But…

There is the fear of your dream failing.

And then there's _this_ kind of fear.

The naked man was looking down at him. His face was shadowed by his long, red hair, but that only made his red eyes glow eerily. His completely white, large, and incredibly-sharp looking fangs stretched across his face in a wide and insane-looking grin. When he spoke, his deep voice made all of Pain's insides freeze.

"**So you have a rinnegan? Haven't seen one of those in a **_**long**_** time."**

Pain gasped out loud as the pressure around his neck increased and the man swiftly lowered his head so that his mouth was right beside his ear.

"**However, you are nowhere near **_**his**_** level."**

Pain had to remind himself that he wasn't literally in any danger. That the real him was away, safely tucked in a secure location with Konan. But those damn chakra receivers made it hard for him to remember that. It was also hard for him to remember that he could not feel physical pain with this body. He could only feel it start to cook and quickly cremate as the man on top of him released a burning red chakra onto him.

Panicked. He felt panic. Failure wasn't supposed to ever be an option with him. He never lost a battle. But this man, this **demon**, was holding him down and burning his body and making him feel fear for the first time since Yahiko's true death. It was pure instinct that drove him to retaliate. Otherwise he would've sat there and done nothing.

"ALMIGHTY PUSH!" He shouted holding his hands in front of him. He had his eyes closed for the first few seconds, because he was exerting all he could. He pulled up a lot of chakra for this one. But when he opened his eyes he was horrified to see that the only thing moving was the man's hair which was being pushed back into the air; looking like a river of fine red silk. His mouth was shut firmly in a frown and two small fangs peaked out on his top lip over his bottom one. His red eyes were half-lidded with boredom. He was unaffected by Pain's devastating technique.

A second later the boredom turned into annoyance as he snarled fiercely and pumped more burning chakra out. It wasn't long before Pain couldn't feel the lower half of the body. He stopped the useless jutsu as his body was slowly cremating from his feet up. He stared into burning red eyes.

Failure wasn't an option. And if he stuck around, it would be the only option. This battle was lost. Nagato had to abandon the body if he wanted another chance. But as he pulled his chakra away, only one thought ran through his mind.

'_Yahiko will never receive a burial worthy of a hero.'_

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><p>Kyuubi was confused. He was confused when he opened his eyes and noticed he was not in his cage, but sitting on the brat in a human form. Confusion went away when he noticed the rinnegan user that had been giving his vessel trouble in these past few hours.<p>

After that there was annoyance. The rinnegan user was good, the damage he did to Konoha was something even Kyuubi could respect. But he wasn't _that_ good. He was nowhere near the level of the Sage of Six Paths. So seeing Naruto was losing to him was a joke. An eye sore.

But now…he hadn't fully destroyed the body yet. There was still the upper half of his arms and chest and of course head and face. So Kyuubi was confused when the familiar eyes of his once father-figure disappeared and two blank, blue eyes stared back at him.

Kyuubi wondered if it was a fraud before deciding it really didn't matter as the threat was gone now. Besides there was another matter for him to deal with. Looking behind him he could see that Naruto still hadn't moved from where he laid on the ground. It didn't even look like he woke up.

He awkwardly crawled on all fours towards his vessel before remembering that humans walked upright. It took him a few seconds to get the hang of standing up on two legs. This body was so strange to him. He had spent over fifty years observing how it worked, but actually using it himself was a different experience entirely.

It was so different, too different, from his older, much more powerful body. He felt the power in this toned and tanned body, but it could scarcely compare to before. Of course, that was because eight of his nine tails was still in the kid.

Kyuubi snarled. His will was strong enough to fight off the Fourth when he tried to redo the seal. The seal was weak enough for Kyuubi to let out an entire tail of his chakra along with his mind before the Fourth and Naruto worked together to seal off the rest of him. Why that tail of chakra turned into _this_ Kyuubi couldn't comprehend. He remembered leeching a little off of the kid when he got out, but he had only done that for substance. It took six tails of power for even his bone structure to be formed, so he needed _something_ to help his tail form into a physical body to control. Perhaps when he leeched off of the kid, he accidentally copied his body structure as well.

Kyuubi scoffed. No matter. He would find a way to make this work and to get his real body back. First he had to reach the kid. He attempted to walk towards Naruto but after tripping ungracefully a few times he finally decided that getting used to the body could wait until after he could be certain that his life and tails were okay. Kyuubi used the speed he used to get to Pain, as it was much easier to use his chakra to propel himself than to walk, and within the second was kneeling by Naruto's side.

The brat was still breathing of course. Judging by the pull Kyuubi felt from Naruto's stomach, Kyuubi figured that if Naruto stopped breathing, he also would stop as well. And seeing him being tossed around by the lesser rinnegan user was a sad and pathetic sight, but Kyuubi at least knew Naruto wouldn't die from it. He was out of the ridiculous frog form at least. Kyuubi stuck out his tongue in disgust. He didn't know Naruto would even consider relying on those…things when he already had Kyuubi.

Just further proof that Naruto was just like all the others. He wasn't worthy of being Kyuubi's vessel.

But for the time being, he was and the only thing Kyuubi could do about that was convince Naruto to release the rest of his power. Obviously since he didn't want to use it he should be more than willing to give it all up. But just in case, Kyuubi should bring some sort of bribery.

Perhaps the Pain body. Yes he would bring the remains of Konoha's destroyer and tell Naruto that since Kyuubi had killed him and saved Konoha from more death and destruction, Naruto owed him his tails and life back. And how could Naruto decline? If Kyuubi could defeat the rinnegan user when Naruto couldn't, that meant that Naruto's only chance against Kyuubi was using his power.

And obviously, he wouldn't do that.

So using what little chakra this body had, Kyuubi formed a tail to stretch out and grab the remains of Deva Path. He then gathered Naruto into his arms and using his speed, searched for a secluded place close to the very edge of the village. When Kyuubi finally became complete again, he wanted to get away from Konoha as fast as possible.

What Kyuubi didn't realize though, was there was one more living being traveling with him. A blue and white slug clung to Naruto's lower back for the sake of her life. She had only just managed to slip into Naruto's jacket and crawl to Naruto's lower back where Kyuubi's hands weren't touching without him noticing the movement. After that she clung to the boy, not making a single peep. It was Katsuyaa's luck that the beast was too distracted with other things to remember she was there.

Because she witnessed everything and was going to have to report it. And she didn't know if the day of terror was all over or if the very worst was about to begin.

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><p>And done.<p>

I apologize for the shortness but I'm trying to get into the hang of writing third person POV like this haha. You can see from my other stories I'm more used to writing with a personal edge to it(I hope you noticed that this story doesn't even have parenthetical thoughts XD...except in the AN heehee).

Anyways, yeah due to this being practice this chapter is more 'transitional' than anything. I mean some important things happened such as Pain's alternate death. That is important as you can imagine.

I promise you the remaining chapters will be longer and have much more important content.

**Also specific question here**, did I do Pain okay? Like the way I had him retreat, it wasn't insulting was it? I wanted to show that Kyuubi was powerful and Nagato knew it which was why he left. But I hope I didn't make him look weak because Nagato will be playing an incredibly important role(Konan will be important too don't worry :P). I looked up Narutopedia too...

Okay other than that, this story is officially another project I'll work on as TINL finishes up. Wow that gives me...five stories to do XD/ Six including the sequel to Okay. More including the stories in development...LOL this is actually a good thing. If I ever get writer's block for one story(which I doubt haha) I have a bunch of others to help me cure it XD.

So yeah please let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 :)!

Hurrah for speedy update! Seriously I didn't think I would get to update this until much later. But then I sat down and started writing and just didn't stop haha. And at least it didn't take as long as last time to update. As promised it is longer than chapters 1 and 2.

_Anon review reply_

_Sasha Naruto: I understand. I've actually seen Narutopedia make mistakes before(though to be fair they usually are pretty fast at correcting them). But I mainly use it for jutsus, places, names, and all kinds of practical things(you know like what kind of rare flowers exist if I want a character to get something sweet, etc.) I don't think they do too bad on personality, but I don't rely on it for that :). I rely on the manga! But thank you! I will write many chapters haha. This will probably be a longish story._

_Nami152: HI! YAY it makes me happy to hear you say that :D! I personally believe the KyuuNaru couple in general doesn't get enough love so I'm hoping to fix that. Thank you so much for your kind words! You will see Kyuubi attempt to convince Naruto in this chapter and the title will come into play at some point haha. But not this early ;P. Thank you so much!_

Now to the rest, please enjoy!

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><p>It was pure luck that Kyuubi didn't have to go that far. Or perhaps it was the result of all the destruction that cleared a pathway to the nearest cave. Kyuubi didn't care either way.<p>

Once inside he gently as he could set Naruto down. Not out of any affection, but because it would be easier to convince Naruto to help him if he wasn't whining about being injured. And at the very least knowing that Kyuubi was 'gentle' with him should make him trust the fox a bit more. If it fails though, a knock to the noggin should knock out Naruto's common sense and make him easy to persuade.

Kyuubi dropped the top half of Deva Pain behind a rock and licked the blood off of his fingers. He could always enjoy the taste of blood. Combine that with the smell of cooked human and Kyuubi was getting really hungry. Alas, with Naruto still asleep he couldn't go anywhere. He didn't want to risk leaving and having Naruto wake up believing he was alone and wander off. No Kyuubi needed to stay until everything was sorted out.

While waiting for Naruto to get up, the fox decided to try and get used to his body. Although he wanted to be fully confident that Naruto would hand him his power and sever the connection between their lives, he knew his vessel wasn't the most rational human he's ever met. Kyuubi knew better than anyone how emotions cloud his vessel's judgment. There was very little doubt in his mind that Naruto would keep hold of his power just to spite him; especially given what happened in his mind just before he had been partially released. Kyuubi had to be fully prepared to be in this form for a while.

He first tried experimenting with what he could do with his chakra. Being an all-powerful being made of the stuff, Kyuubi didn't have much need for jutsu. Simply knowing how to unleash blasts of pure, concentrated chakra was enough for him. Luckily, that appeared to be working for him. He gathered chakra at his fingertips and palm, gathered it in the back of his throat, and even gathered it to his ears. Once he was satisfied with that, he experimented more with what changes to his body the chakra could do.

His nails and teeth were only slightly sharper than the average human's unfortunately, but with a tiny bit of chakra he could make them sharper and lengthen. His ears looked like pointy human ears but chakra made them look exactly like his fox form's ears and he could hear as well as he could in that form as well. The only part of him that the chakra couldn't replicate was his tail. If he pooled chakra at the base of his back where the tail was supposed to go, he only got the chakra tail that Naruto received when he entered the one-tail state.

After experimenting with his chakra, Kyuubi decided to test the physical aspects. He first tried walking on all fours again, but that was incredibly uncomfortable and he kept accidentally stepping on and pulling his hair. Speaking of which, Kyuubi eyed the long, red locks in disgust. The color matched his fur perfectly; he even had side bangs that were black. But a majority of it was long and red.

Just like Kushina's hair.

Just like Mito's hair when she let it down.

The reminder of his previous jinchuuriki, both of whom he hated with a passion, made his stomach curl in a painful way. If nothing else, he needed to find a way to rid himself of this long hair fast. He was about to lengthen his claws and just cleave off the hair himself, and he didn't care about how it would look, when he heard Naruto groan.

He immediately looked to see Naruto fidgeting about, trying to sit up. Once he accomplished that he rubbed his head looking incredibly groggy and then suddenly lurched forward as if he was about to throw up. Luckily for Kyuubi's sensitive nose Naruto only dry heaved for a bit. Kyuubi used the extra time to add a little chakra to his voice. It was easy to make deals when your voice sounds 'daunting' and if this body was an almost exact copy of Naruto's then he really needed help with his voice. When Naruto finally got a hold of himself, Kyuubi spoke.

"**If you are done feeling weak now I'd like to talk to you." **It wasn't his original voice. But the smooth, deeper sound would do just fine.

Naruto yelped loudly in surprise and fell back. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped when he saw Kyuubi.

"Who-Who the hell are you?" He asked in a scratchy voice. Kyuubi's expression melted into a glare.

"**Now that's insulting. You would've recognize anyone of your friends easily in another form, but when it comes to the powerful being that has been there all of your life, you can't tell who he is. Then again you never visit anyway, so what reason could I have to believe you'd recognize me?"**

Kyuubi was pleasantly surprised to see recognition appear in Naruto's eyes. It was a bit enlightening to see that even without Kyuubi's mind inside of him to recognize things he couldn't, Naruto was actually sharper than most thought. The fox smirked when Naruto glared at him and shakily stood up on his two legs.

"_You_," Naruto's voice was filled with pure disgust which surprised Kyuubi. The blond didn't even speak of Pain's name with such vitriol. Perhaps it stemmed from the fact that Naruto believed Kyuubi was a hateful being that willingly and excitedly brought destruction while that Pain guy kept talking of peace albeit in a mentally unstable manner. Or maybe it could be because of what happened before he got out.

Kyuubi waited for the angry tirade but was puzzled when Naruto stiffened and started scratching his back. His confusion didn't last long as Naruto immediately pulled out a…slug? Kyuubi's eyes widened. He had forgotten all about that thing.

"Katsuyaa?" Naruto asked holding the shaking and obviously terrified slug summon.

"N-Naruto who is thatWhat's going onShould I send for help?Becuase that can't be who I think it isIt just can't!" The slug asked quickly. To Kyuubi it looked like Naruto needed a few seconds to understand what the slug said. When he did his mouth set into a firm line and he looked at Kyuubi with a grim expression. Just to be a tease, Kyuubi grinned back and waved, inwardly laughing Naruto's face showed an expression of hatred.

Naruto shook his head and turned to Katsuyaa.

"Katsuyaa I need you to calm down and listen to me alright?" He said calmly. The shivering slug nodded.

"Please Naruto you must tell me who that is!"

"First you have to tell me if you told anyone about what has been happening."

Katsuyaa shook her head. "No not yet. The last thing I told them about was all I could see was a bright red, but you were alright. When the man over there had his chakra release, everyone was in danger due to the burning air. I'm helping them get to safety as we speak."

"What? You endangered my friends?" Naruto growled at Kyuubi. The fox merely shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't about to defend himself to Naruto. Why should he point out that the brat _knew_ a large amount of Kyuubi's chakra would cause the air to burn? That _he_ was the one who told his friends to stay away in the first place and _they_ obviously didn't listen therefore making it their own fault they were put in danger? Kyuubi cared very little about Naruto's opinion. So it didn't matter at all that once again the brat was blaming _him_ for human faults.

Naruto, still growling, turned back to Katsuyaa.

"Are they hurt?"

"No they're fine. Sakura is with us and she and I have managed to keep everyone healed."

Naruto sighed in relief. "Good."

"Now tell me Naruto who is that man? What should I do!"

"Katsuyaa," Naruto started. "Look I know you're probably going to object but I can't tell you who that is."

"What?"

"And I want you to keep the fact that he is here a secret."

"Naruto that's-"

"Think about it Katsuyaa! We can't let people know. Not this soon. The panic and chaos would be too great and…" Naruto trailed off and only Kyuubi could understand what he was thinking. He knew Naruto was thinking about how as he was Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, he was entrusted with the duty to keep him locked up. Now that he failed that task who knows what the villagers will think of him? They might even forget the role he had in fighting Pain and only focus on the fact that he brought Konoha's worst disaster back to them. He knew that's what Naruto truly feared right now. To Kyuubi, Naruto was such a baby about people's opinions of him.

But Kyuubi couldn't stop this plan. He too had his reasons for keeping this new development a secret. The main one being that if Konoha found out that he was released and he only had about a tail of his power within him, no doubt they'll gather up their greatest fuinjutsu users to seal him up once more. And without his other eight-tails, as much as it pained him to admit it, Kyuubi didn't believe he'd stand much of a chance against them.

"Look just trust me okay?" Naruto continued. "I'll handle this. I'll make sure everything will be okay and no more people will be hurt. Okay?"

"But…" Katsuyaa took a moment to reply before finally sighing and saying, "Alright Naruto. I trust you."

"Good. Now what I need you to do is go back and be with the others. They'll need your help more than I do."

Katsuyaa looked unsure until Naruto said, "Please Katsuyaa. I need to talk to this…_**guy**_ alone,"

When Naruto said 'guy' he glared sharply at Kyuubi from the corner of his eye. Kyuubi only stared blankly in return. This anger that Naruto was showing him was cute but it was nothing spectacular. He had seen much stronger anger when he looked in his reflection.

"Be careful Naruto," the slug warned. Naruto nodded.

"I will." And with that Katsuyaa disappeared.

"**You really trust her not to tell?"**

Naruto ignored Kyuubi's question. Instead he glared at him like he had murdered his parents.

"You **bastard**! How the hell did you get out of your cage!" He demanded. Kyuubi chuckled and stood up slowly.

"**Your precious, little father-son team was cute but you'd be surprise how strong the longing for freedom is. When you've been trapped behind bars for the past 16 years or so and your chance to become free is **_**right there**_** then you-"**

"If this is you trying to get some sort of _**pity**_ from me it's not going to work!"

Now Kyuubi was angry. The absolute last thing he wanted was pity from **anyone**. His vessel was just like a typical human; so self-centered and judgmental. He glowered harshly at Naruto, taking joy in the fact that he made the blond flinch.

"**I honestly wonder how long you would've survived without me with that mouth of yours. I was simply explaining to you that seeing you and your father trying to redo the seal right in front of me combined with the 16 years I've spent longing for my freedom made my will strong enough to override the feeble, little seal and get my mind and part of my powers out. Your pity is neither needed nor wanted," **Kyuubi spat that last sentence out, as if he were revolted Naruto would even consider Kyuubi cared in the least bit. It gave him endless pleasure to see Naruto hesitate when he was called out on his rashness. Funny how he even cares about how a guy he hates sees him. In Kyuubi's opinion, Naruto relied too much on the opinion of others. It made him so weak.

Naturally, when Naruto got his mind back together in order to answer, Kyuubi didn't get an apology.

"Well regardless, you're gonna have to get back inside of me. It's too dangerous to have you walking around! You'll kill innocent people!"

Of course. Naruto hated Kyuubi with a passion but now that he finally has a chance to get rid of him, he doesn't want to take it. Humans were so incredibly selfish, Kyuubi thought in detestation.

"**I actually want to talk to you about that. You see, I have no intention whatsoever to go back into that dreaded seal. However you still have some things that belong to me. Namely eight of my tails. I ask that you give those things back to me and I will leave without a problem."**There. Kyuubi even made his offer in a polite manner. But watch how Naruto will still reject him and make it look like he's a bad guy.

"Are you insane? You think I'm dumb or something? I will NEVER give you the power to do what you did to Konoha again! I would never forgive myself if I let you go and kill innocent people!"

See? Kyuubi knew his vessel all too well. Ah well, that's why he had back-up plans.

"**You talk as if I'm guaranteed to kill every second. However since I've been out I've only taken one life,"** Kyuubi walked up to his trump card behind the rock and picked it up by its hair.

"**I believe this man doesn't count as 'innocent' since he has been causing you trouble right?"** Kyuubi held the body up in front of Naruto.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Naruto fell back on his body and scrambled away. Kyuubi managed to hold back his laughs but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. It was funny how Naruto entered the ninja profession and had this kind of reaction to a mutilated body. Then again, it was his first time seeing a body in such a state. Every human freaks out during their 'first time' of anything. It's what made them human. And it's what contributed to the separation between Kyuubi and their kind. Kyuubi never freaked out over anything.

"What the fuck Kyuubi?" Naruto repeated when he got control over his voice again.

"**This man caused this village a lot of trouble didn't he? The damage is almost to the scale of my attack. Well when I was released I did you and this village a favor and killed him. So now, you owe me," **he said. And out of pure callousness, he threw the body to Naruto and inwardly cackled at how his vessel scrambled away from the body and eyed it in a mixture of weariness and terror. He then shakily stood up once more.

"I-"

"**You owe me. I saved your village and now you owe me my power back."**

Naruto took a few deep breaths before staring at Kyuubi. "I-I'm not a samurai!"

"**What?"**

"Samurai are those who are big about honor. Although I do care about honor and repaying my debts, I…I'm a ninja and ninja are deceitful!" Naruto shouted pointing at the stunned, but not too surprised Kyuubi. He figured it wouldn't be as easy as it looked getting his power back. Although he couldn't say he wasn't disappointed his plan didn't work in the way he had hoped.

"You manipulated me in my darkest hour for the sake of your freedom. Your anger takes over my mind and makes me destroy things and hurt people I care about. You can't be trusted! How do I know you're going to 'leave without a problem' when I give you what you want huh? I'd rather keep people safe than be sorry. So I'm not giving you anything!"

Now Kyuubi was furious. How **dare **this little child hold hostage what rightfully belonged to him with such a weak excuse.

"**You despicable little** **fool! You don't even WANT my power! I spent centuries of my life, more years than you could even IMAGINE, to build up all that chakra and I will NOT let some arrogant, self-righteous, know-it-all punk get between me and it! Now you WILL give me back my tails or face my wrath," **Kyuubi threatened. Naruto crossed his arms.

"You threatening me isn't going to make me give you your stuff back," he mocked. Kyuubi longed to reach out and tear his throat. Or no even better, Kyuubi longed to reach out and tear his fingers out. Then tear off his hand. Then his arm. Then he'd do the same with his other limb. Then he'd tear of his toes, then his feet, then his leg, then his thigh. And then he'd do the same with the other. And then when Naruto was a limbless, quivering mess of pain, Kyuubi would look him in the eye and laugh as he stabbed his arm into his stomach where the seal would be. He wanted to make Naruto suffer.

He was considering leaving Naruto alone after he got his tails and life back. Not out of any affection or thanks to the blond, but because he cared more about going out to enjoy his new freedom than revenge. And it would've been nice to see how freaked out the kid would get not knowing where he was. Naruto would stay up all night waiting for Kyuubi to come back and finish him off. He would feel guilty over letting a monster escape and the guilt would affect his daily life. He would be so psychologically messed up for letting Konoha's greatest enemy go, an enemy that he also happened to hate himself, that he won't forget it for any moment of his life.

It would always be at the back of his mind, whispering to him and reminding him what a failure of a jinchuuriki he was. Kyuubi wanted that to happen. He was planning on coming back at a later date anyway to finally finish Naruto off.

But his mind was changed now. The moment he got his power and life back he would end Naruto then and there for good.

"What's gonna happen anyway? If you don't get your power back? Is a mountain going to be destroyed? Or a tsunami going to be raised?" Naruto asked tauntingly, as if he was teasing Kyuubi over the fact that he didn't have the strength to do those things anymore.

If he was going to be that way then so be it.

Kyuubi turned around and started walking out of the cave.

"**I'm going to kill your friends."**

That got a reaction from Naruto.

"What? No you can't!"

"**Watch me."**

"I won't let-" And Kyuubi could _feel_ Naruto try to enter the frog mode and at the same time draw a bit of his own chakra when he interrupted him.

"**You didn't even have to strength to defeat that pathetic human," **he said pointing to the Pain body. **"While **_**I**_** took care of him in less than a minute. You can't touch me. The only way you'd stand a chance at stopping me is if you use my power. And I know you won't do something as **_**demeaning**_** and **_**dangerous**_** as that," **he mocked.

Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. Kyuubi could tell he was shaking with anger, but he wasn't intimidated in the least bit.

"**Tch,"** Kyuubi snorted. **"You may have my power under your thumb but you don't have what it takes to control me,"** he said walking away. He didn't see Naruto bow his head. Nor did he see Naruto reach into his weapons pouch and grab his kunai.

"You're right," Naruto said. Kyuubi kept walking, as if he didn't even hear Naruto. Of course he was right. He was the Kyuubi, when was he ever wrong? Especially in regards to Naruto?

But then he felt something that made his blood freeze.

Kyuubi whipped around and he paled when he saw Naruto smirking a crazy smirk at him. Right at his neck was his sharpened kunai along with a thin sheet of blood starting to pool out of a shallow cut. Kyuubi glowered.

"**What. The **_**hell**_**. Are you **_**doing**_**?"** Kyuubi whispered dangerously. Naruto never lost that smirk.

"I don't have what it takes to control you yet," he slightly pressed the kunai to his neck harder making the Kyuubi flinch towards him. "But I can make you stop."

"**YOU FOOL!"** Kyuubi growled. **"Take that thing away from your neck! Are you crazy?"**

"Hm?" Naruto taunted. He teased Kyuubi by slowly shaking his kunai back and forth towards his neck. Kyuubi growled fiercely. Naruto didn't know that their lives were still connected. If he died, Kyuubi still died. He didn't want to tell him that for this very reason and yet the blond imbecile _still_ relied on it! Naruto was playing a dangerous game here. But two can play it that way.

"**You wouldn't dare. You have things to live for Naruto! Don't-"** Kyuubi took a step forward only to pause as Naruto clearly pressed the kunai even harder. This time, he wasn't smiling. A chilling glare had settled on his face.

"_**Don't underestimate me."**_

The meaning was clear to Kyuubi. He shouldn't underestimate what Naruto was willing to do to keep him away from his friends. Kyuubi sneered at Naruto, cursing the blond boy and his own luck at being attached to him. He was literally trembling with anger.

"What's it going to be Kyuubi? You gonna listen? Or spend more years than I can imagine getting all of that strength back?" Naruto jeered. "Better hurry."

Kyuubi didn't need to be told that twice. He could see Naruto's skin turn pale and his breath start to slow down with all of the blood coming out of his throat. He could feel his body start to tire out and the edges of his vision start to darken. As long as he had that kunai there in the wound, Kyuubi's chakra couldn't automatically heal him. And he knew Naruto. He knew the blond boy would have no qualms about standing there until they _both_ died.

Kyuubi cursed the boy to hell and back.

His shoulders slumped and he let out a sigh of resignation.

"Good boy," Naruto said pulling the kunai away from his neck. Kyuubi felt his chakra rapidly heal the wound. He could feel Naruto's smug smirk and he felt the irresistible urge to wipe it off of his face. Brutally.

"**Make no mistake boy. I WILL get you back for this**," Kyuubi threatened with a dark look on his face.

Anyone else would've went running for the hill or to their house to write their will. But Naruto met Kyuubi's look with a dark look of his own. They both stood there in complete silence. The hatred, killer intent, and tension in the cave were thick enough that had anyone else been in there they would've found it hard to breathe.

Finally it was Naruto who broke the silence. Because Kyuubi couldn't think of anything to say that would help him in the least bit.

"I don't know any sealing techniques. And I'm not going to tell anyone about this."

"**Of course. Don't want anyone knowing you're a failure do you? It's bad enough that the last memory your father will have of the living world is seeing his fuck-up of a son messing things up as usual."**

"SHUT UP!" Naruto screamed and Kyuubi was annoyed to see Naruto's eyes flash red. Naruto calmed down and continued speaking with a glare on his face.

"So here's what we're going to do. You are going to stay out of the public's eye. No one can know you're here and no one can know who you are. Meanwhile I'm going to be doing some research and see how to put you back inside of me. There will be no whining, no complaining, no mischief or dangerous intentions at ALL coming from you. And if so much as TRIP someone and I find out I'll kill myself so fast you won't even realize it happened! Got it?"

Kyuubi didn't show Naruto he understood. He merely crossed his arms and looked at Naruto blankly, his eyes communicating all of what he thought about Naruto and his so-called demands.

Kyuubi did 'get it'. He gets it now that his vessel was much more tyrannical than he had once believed. He thought this kind of treatment was reserved only for the snake Orochimaru, but it appears he underestimated the sheer loathing Naruto held for him.

An understandable mistake on his part. After all the real Naruto was always angry at everyone but him. He liked that Naruto so much better. It was a real shame this Naruto was using that delicious anger against him.

Naruto apparently got tired of waiting and finally spoke again.

"Okay now we're going to head back into Konoha. Here," he took off his jacket and pants, leaving him in nothing but his boxers, shoes, forehead protector, and shirt, and gave them to Kyuubi. Though he made sure to keep his weapons pouch with him. "Wear these, follow me closely, and don't say anything. I'll take you to my apartment if it's still around first and I'll figure out what to do next once we get there."

Kyuubi silently took the clothes and took his sweet time putting them on. It was a good thing he hadn't gotten used to using this body yet. Moving at a slow speed would be sure to piss his vessel off. And he knew, or at least he HOPED he knew, Naruto wouldn't kill himself over Kyuubi moving too slowly. That would be done.

Once he was done Naruto nodded and started walking out of the cave.

"Now let's go. And don't lag too far behind."

Bossy, bossy, bossy. Humans were all the same, Kyuubi thought as he followed Naruto.

* * *

><p>So Naruto is a jerk here I know but there's a point to that. I'll explain.<p>

I think a good story is a story that has development. Character development, relationship development, plot development, etc. One thing about the Naruto manga that kind of irked me a little was that I didn't really understand how Naruto went from:**(SPOILERS AHOY! scroll down to the 'end spoilers' tag if you want to skip them)**

"Kyuubi's power is dangerous and I can't use it or I'll hurt people."

to:

"I'm sorry Kyuubi."

and then to:

"I get you're lonely Kyuubi but we'll talk later lol."

I mean he jumped from point A to point C and skipped most of point B! Now I know there was this quick address of that when he admits to the four tails that he was jealous of Bee and Gyuuki's relationship and he wanted his relationship with Kurama to be that way, but I don't get it because we never see Naruto show this. He doesn't go to visit Kyuubi or anything! And when he finally does he brushes Kyuubi off! And then in order to get Kyuubi's respect it took saving another tailed beast...

Don't get me wrong! I LOVE how Naruto and Kyuubi are friends now and I thought the chapters leading up to their big team up were AWESOME(I was squealing for every page!)

But I dunno it just made me a little sad to see Kyuubi thinking back to all of the times Naruto was 'nice' to him and he could only think of two things(one of which, Naruto wasn't even speaking to him and it was really kind of out of nowhere. Seriously he had been complaining all his the throughout the manga about being a demon vessel and then suddenly it isn't all bad? When did this change happen?)that happened within the same week or day or something.

So basically what I'm saying is I was okay with Kyuubi's development from hating Naruto to liking him(even though it similarly came pretty quick at least we got foreshadowing of it in previous chapters). But I was NOT satisfied with how Naruto came around. I can't pinpoint the exact time he changed his mind about Kyuubi and that sucks :/. And I wish he could've _shown_ this 'jealousy' and that he wanted his relationship with Kyuubi personally to change.

Cuz as much as I hate to say it(as much as I reeeeeeeally hate to say it since Naruto is(i meant is. He still is my favorite character hah:P)my favorite character), I thought Naruto was kind of a jerk in 538 ._.

**(End SPOILERS)**

So if you skipped all that, the main reason I made Naruto that way is because I want to develop his relationship with Kyuubi in a _believable_ way. I want to show how he goes from believing what Jiraiya, Kakashi, Yamato, Iruka, and everyone else has said about him, to eventually caring for him as an individual. I want to show when does his mind change, how does his mind change, why does his mind change, etc. And I will try to show the stages(simple respect, acquaintances, friendship, love, you get it).

And it will be vice versa for Kyuubi. Clearly he is not going to fawn over Naruto just because he knows him better. Instead his feelings and stuff will have to grow and change with Naruto's. And again I want to make it believable.

Basically their relationship will grow like October 10th, only they have legitimate reasons to hate each other and unlike in that story Naruto has no obligation to be nice to Kyuubi haha.

**BUT** do note this will **NOT** be just a 'romance' story. Since this takes place in the ninjaverse, Naruto AND Kyuubi will have to grow and develop in canon/other ways not relating to each other(for example Kyuubi will have to learn that all humans are different from one another, how to treat his fellow tailed beasts, etc.). By this point you already know things have changed what with Nagato surviving and this WILL impact the rest of the story making it an alternate universe to canon. But canon stuff will still stay.

There will still be the Uchiha problem(Sasuke, Madara, Tobi, etc.), the Kabuto problem, the peace problem, etc.. I will try to resolve all of those as well.

So yeah this will be a big one. It kind of has to be lol. So I will very much appreciate it if people could be patient with this story? It will require a lot of planning and keeping up with the manga. Thank you!

My profile shows which stories I will update next and when this one will be updated again.

Hope you enjoyed this! And please let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

And finally here it is! Chapter 4!

So sorry for the loooooooooooooooooong wait! Working on my other stories plus college :/. And a mini writer's block once I finally got to working on this. Hopefully my next update for this story won't take nearly as long.

_Anon Review Reply-_

_Nami152- _Thank you so much :)! Yeah Kyuubi and Naruto reaaaally aren't fond of each other and it's going to take actions on both ends for them to get to 'oh being with you isn't so bad after all'. They will be pretty hostile towards each other at first as you will see lol :P. I'm glad you like the style! Hope I can keep it up haha. This chapter is in Naruto's POV :)!

_XGravityX- _KyuuNaru Queen? Oh wow that made me blush! THANK YOU :D!

_Blaufeder-_ Thank you very much :)! or Danke!

NOTE: The rest of this story will all be in Naruto's and Kyuubi's POV. They will alternate chapters. This chapter is in Naruto's POV. The next will be Kyuubi's. The one after will be Naruto's, etc.

Please enjoy and I apologize again for the super long wait!

* * *

><p>"Daddy's little fuck up."<p>

He wouldn't stop.

"Daddy's little mistake."

He just kept _taunting_ him.

"His last earthly request was to you, his only son, and you messed it up."

Naruto put his hands over his ears. He wished Kyuubi would just shut up! He KNOWS he messed up. He remembers.

"_He's trying to get out! Naruto! I need you to use all of your will power to hold him back while I redo the seal! I'm counting on you. We can't let him escape!"_

And Naruto remembered what he said.

"_Okay dad! Just leave it to me!"_

And now he knows he failed. He failed spectacularly. He knows it because since they've left the cave, Kyuubi has done nothing but remind him of it. At least he stopped that stupid voice trick. There was such a thing as small miracles. Though Naruto wasn't entirely sure if that fitted the strictest definition of a miracle. He wasn't sure what was worse. Hearing a toned-down Kyuubi taunt him constantly or hearing his own voice just a bit deeper taunt him. Naruto had to always try hard just to avoid self-decrepitating thoughts every time he failed, but with Kyuubi's voice now sounding so much like his own it was getting a bit tough to handle.

"His true last request, failed just like his previous one."

Naruto still refused to respond to the fox demon and even with his hands over his ears he tried to hold his head up high. He didn't even look back to see the horrid grin he _knew_ was on the demon's face.

"But hey look on the bright side! You should be happy to know that you are just like the rest of your village. That's what you always wanted right? To fit in? To have something in common with the rest of your so-called peers? Well Konoha fails horribly when it comes to listening to their fourth Hokage and you're no different!"

Naruto closed his eyes and took deep breaths to try and calm down. The bastard was trying extra hard now to get under his skin. He couldn't give the fox the satisfaction of knowing his words were hitting him hard.

"Hmm let's remember. Before the last request was 'treat my son as a hero'. Of course he didn't use the word 'son' and I don't think he's regretting that now. You're not necessarily his pride and joy anymore now are you?"

Naruto gritted his teeth and brought his fists to his side. But he refused to verbally respond to Kyuubi's taunts. That's want he wanted and that's was Naruto refused to give. He just needed to breathe deeply and tune him out.

"You remember how badly the village failed their request right? Of course you do! You'll **never** be able to forget now will you?"

Naruto desperately tried to focus on something else as he was this close to snapping. The landscape of Konoha wasn't looking to good in his opinion. He wondered if they were even in the village.

"So Naruto?" the fox called out softly. In spite of himself Naruto found himself glancing back. He regretted it immediately as the malicious-looking grin on Kyuubi's face and the wicked look in his blood red eyes made his insides curl.

"You remember his true last request don't you? He made it such a short time ago that I am _certain_ you remember how badly you screwed that up. Worse than the villagers I would say," and he continued speaking in that same, _maddening_ soft tone of voice.

"Stop…_talking_," Naruto growled out through gritted teeth.

"Or what?" His companion asked with a chuckle. A chuckle that made Naruto want to turn around and strangle him.

"You'll kill yourself? Come on. I know you're not stupid enough to threaten suicide over the _attention_ I'm giving you, are you? I know it's quite a gamble to bet on your intelligence, but despite these past couple of decades I'll have you know that I'm usually a lucky fox."

Attention? He called what he was doing to Naruto 'attention'?

"But I still can't believe you threatened your life with suicide earlier. I thought you had so much to live for."

"Of course you can't believe it. You were about to take away my reasons for living."

"That is not healthy you know. Living for yourself should be number one. It's in all survivable creatures' heads. It's in mine and I survived thousands and thousands of years. Even now, you humans made quite a dent in my way of living but _I _keep going on."

"You don't understand," Naruto gritted out. How dare Kyuubi look down on him for caring about others? At least he had friends, people who would miss him if he was gone. Sure he doesn't have a lot but it's more than Kyuubi. No one would miss the fox's sorry ass if he died. The thought made Naruto feel a tiny bit better.

"No I don't get it. And I really don't want to."

Naruto shook his head and hoped this meant now the son of a bitch would finally shut up. He didn't want to hear the demon any more than he wanted to see his village in this kind of state. Blue eyes looked around sadly.

So many buildings were gone. The beautiful things like the fountains and the many pots of colorful flowers were no more. The many giant, green trees that immediately surrounded the village were broken or completely destroyed, pushing Konoha's forest farther back than it used to be.

The village looked so empty, so desolate. It was like a large wasteland. Naruto couldn't believe this used to be his home. A bright place where the sky was always blue and the sun shined brightly except when it rained. Now the sky was a dreary grey, but there was no rain. How could one person do this to the village?

He remembered the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Konoha. But now it didn't look like anyone other than he and his unfortunate companion were around. Sort of like the wasteland of Konoha was a ghost town-like wasteland. He almost wanted to see someone else hustling and bustling other than himself. But he was...okay for now. The village looked so bad, that seeing anyone look around with the same despair that had to be on his face would surely make his heart twist. And seeing a villager's or a comrade's dead body, would just make his stomach sick.

Imagining it now was already making him kind of sick, he thought squeezing his eyes shut.

"Isn't this site beautiful Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes shot open and he stiffened for the quickest second before walking again. Kyuubi was starting again.

"I've been waiting to see this kind of destruction done to this place again. It may not be my attack, but it is wonderful to see. The only things that are missing, other than more destruction of course, are the bodies of civilians and ninja alike; crushed and bleeding out like little ants."

Naruto's breathing got heavier as he pictured it. He experienced shot of anger directed at Kyuubi for putting the picture in his mind.

"The fourth Hokage bled out fast and so did that ugly woman that was with him. I only wish you suffered the same before I was sealed into you."

Naruto wasn't going hold himself back this time. He didn't care if he was giving the demon the reaction he was looking for. If Kyuubi said _one more thing_...

"I need a haircut."

The fact that it was an innocent statement didn't matter. It was the person who spoke it. Naruto felt something inside of him snap at the sound of his voice again.

"GO KILL YOURSELF!"

"Hm?" Kyuubi raised an eyebrow.

"I mean go screw yourself! You're not funny! You're not cool! You're a **menace**_**! **_Someone NOBODY wants around! And I TOLD you to be quiet!" Naruto shouted rearing back a fist, ready to knock the monster's teeth out.

"And what will you do if I don't shut up hm? Tell on me?"

Kyuubi pointed behind Naruto. Naruto turned around and was horrified to see a fellow Konoha ninja limping away from them. Naruto gasped and panic seized his body. Did the ninja see him and Kyuubi? Did he know who he was trying to punch? What if he was limping off to find someone to speak to about Naruto's failure?

He would never hurt a fellow Konoha ninja, and the sentiment has only gotten stronger after all that has just happened. But some damage control needed to be done.

"Get behind those rocks now," he ordered Kyuubi, pointing a pile of rocks beside them. It frustrated him to no end to see the red-head, idly kick at the rocks instead of doing what he was told.

"I don't think these are rocks Naruto," he pointed out. "They look more like the pieces of a collapsed building."

"I don't care! Just hide yourself behind them, shut up, and don't move AT ALL until I come and get you."

And without sticking around to make sure Kyuubi did what he was told, Naruto turned around and sped after the injured ninja.

"Hey! Hey wait!" He called out. The ninja stopped and turned around. Naruto didn't recognize him, but he could see that the boy was incredibly young; couldn't have been older than 13-years-old. He looked roughed up. Burns, scratches, and bruises littered his body, but hopefully it wasn't too serious.

"Who are you?" Naruto immediately asked. "What are you doing here? What did you see?"

But instead of answering Naruto's questions, the boy only gaped at him. He could see the boy recognized him.

"You're that guy," he said his expression one of awe.

"Um what?" Not used to people looking at him that way Naruto fidgeted nervously.

"You-you showed up!"

"Huh?"

"That guy that showed up, on the giant toad."

"Giant toad? You mean Gamabunta and his friends?"

To Naruto's surprise the boy smiled and looked excited.

"I saw you! I mean you're missing your clothes but I know it was you! I was hiding right over there the entire time! You showed up with giant frogs and fought that guy that was trying to kill us! I hate myself for passing out when that red light showed up, but I just woke up and I was so scared that you lost. I was scared that everyone but me died! But here you are! That means you defeated him right? We're all safe right?"

He didn't defeat Pain. Kyuubi did. But he couldn't tell anyone that. He couldn't let them know how he lost control of his inner monster.

But how could he take credit for something he didn't do?

Even if it was _Kyuubi_ Naruto had never been the type to take credit for others work. He had always believed that he should only show off what _he_ can do. That was how he wanted to earn respect. He didn't want Kyuubi to have anything to do with his climb to the top anymore.

Naruto's lack of reply makes the question repeat.

"You did kill Pain…right?"

"Pain was killed." He finally said. Because it was true...

"You killed him?" A bright smile. Naruto flinches.

"He was killed," he repeated. "And I…helped create the means through which he was defeated but I don't know if I can say…"

"Wow I can't believe it! You killed Pain! You killed the guy attacking us! Wow! You saved us! You're a hero!" The boy exclaimed.

Naruto paused at that.

A hero?

Him?

He was so distracted by that sentiment he didn't even notice the boy wrap his arms around his waist. He was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of rocks falling over. The ninja in front of him winced and pulled away.

"Our village is almost totally destroyed." Yes but that sound came from behind them where Kyuubi was. He glared in that direction before commanding the boy,

"You go and find some people and tell them Pain is gone now."

"What will you do hero?" Naruto winced. The boy was looking up at him with such admiration in his brown eyes. His stomach was starting to feel a little sick again. But he hid his discomfort and smiled a fake smile at the kid.

"You don't have to call me that. Just call me Naruto. But I'll go search over there," he pointed behind him, "for anyone else."

The boy grinned. "Okay Naruto! I'll be really fast!" And with that he hobbled away. Naruto thought about helping the young ninja walk but he already had something to focus on. As much as he didn't want to focus on it and wished the problem would just disappear. But he couldn't bear to make this problem any worse. He felt guilty enough for being called a hero when he wasn't anyway, solving the issue with Kyuubi would be his saving grace. Otherwise he would never be able to show his face to Konoha again.

* * *

><p>"Didn't I tell you to keep still?" Naruto glared. Kyuubi shrugged.<p>

"I had an itch I needed to scratch."

"And it required you to knock down a couple of rocks," Naruto said sarcastically.

"I don't think me giving away my position is the big issue here," Kyuubi grinned and Naruto could only imagine what was coming. He was thinking another taunt about his father again or maybe a taunt about how that kid secretly hated him. But what he got was worse.

"Aren't you the noble one? Letting that naive idiot think _you're_ the hero."

Naruto stiffened and instinctively defended himself. "I did it for our sakes! I told you I can't let anyone know you're here! It's to protect us!"

"You mean you did it for _your_ sake. You could care less about me. It's all to save your precious reputation."

"You're wrong. I **couldn't** care less about you," Naruto sneered. He ignored Kyuubi's other accusation. So what if he did care about what the others thought of him? Their acknowledgment was something he had been working his whole life towards. It was a long progress and to lose it all now and go back to the hell that was his childhood was something he couldn't deal with. He was only human. But he felt guilty about it!

"You know, you're mind set isn't at all healthy for you."

"Oh shut up! You're nothing but a demon, a monster. You wouldn't understand!"

"And you are a perfect constant reminder as to why I never want to understand," Kyuubi glared. It was the first time since they had left the cave that Naruto saw Kyuubi look angry. But he wasn't intimidated. Or at least, he didn't show he was. He quickly turned his back to Kyuubi.

"We need to get to my apartment."

"If it's still standing. Be prepared to become homeless Naruto. And this time you don't have a kindly, old man looking out for you."

That's right, he didn't. Instead he had a rotten, old demon who hated him and who he hated back.

"Now you are on my ignore list until we get there. Don't say a word until we get there."

"Well geeze Naruto if you didn't want to talk to me why didn't you just say so?"

Naruto scowled, but oddly enough when they started walking again Kyuubi was silent. It was a good thing and Naruto was happy not to hear the demon's mocking voice. But it had the added drawback of allowing him to really focus on the surrounding area.

He didn't like seeing how his once beautiful, proud, standing village was almost no more. Piles of once houses and stores, no shrubbery as far as he could see, an eerie silence as if everyone had died like that boy thought. The only sounds he heard were his own footsteps and Kyuubi's. But he wasn't about to admit to himself that Kyuubi being here made him feel less alone. As if he preferred Kyuubi's company to loneliness.

The sight of his village was starting to be too much so he looked at the ground and attempted to think about other, less-depressing things, like how Pain can't do any more damage to the village, until he and Kyuubi reached what remained of his apartment.

It was a miracle it was still standing. It didn't look very good, he could see his bathroom and part of his training room from the outside, but it was still standing. They quickly snuck inside, Naruto getting angry more than once as Kyuubi was so damn _clumsy_ at doing it. It felt like he was messing up on purpose. Once inside, Naruto hurriedly shut the blinds on his window and did a scan around to make sure there was no way anyone could see he and Kyuubi inside his room.

After he determined that they were completely safe from the public's eye in his apartment, Naruto let out a huge sigh of relief. But his relief was gone when he saw Kyuubi plop down onto his bed and curl up.

"What are you doing?" He demanded walking up to the bed.

Kyuubi yawned in response.

"Get up! We have things to do!"

"Don't you mean _you_ have things to do? _You_ have to research the seal and _I_ can't be in public remember? Just let me sleep."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something but ended up saying nothing because he realized Kyuubi was right. He had nothing in here that can help him with seals which meant he needed to go out again. And although the thought of having this monster sleep in his room-in his bed- wasn't exactly pleasant, he wasn't too angry to pick up on something. Kyuubi sounded tired. Incredibly tired. Exhausted might be the most accurate word to use.

Naruto didn't understand how he could be exhausted from a little walking but then he remembered that Kyuubi killed Pain. And he was missing eight of his tails. And just how much energy did he spend killing the Akatsuki leader? If he only had one tail of his power then...It was then that Naruto heard the fox's soft snoring.

Naruto stood by and looked at the sleeping Kyuubi for only a few more seconds before turning around and walking away.

He wasn't letting Kyuubi sleep to be nice. He's doing it because it's the least he could do to make up for inadvertently taking the credit for his kill. And because if Kyuubi did deserve anything, it was a little rest. But make no mistake, Naruto reassured himself, he still wasn't happy with the demon. He still didn't even like him. He hated him for all of the words he said and for trying to get under his skin.

Naruto would allow him a little rest and that's _it_.

Meanwhile, he needed to go do that research. But...the village was in a horrible shape right now. There were probably plenty of innocent people who needed help. His friends might also need his help. And what were the chances that library was still around?

He should go do that research. But as he quietly slipped out of his apartment, Naruto thought that maybe his primary duty as a ninja should be to go and help anyone who needs help. With his shadow clone jutsu it shouldn't take that long for him to do all he can. Maybe he'll finish and be able to get some research in before Kyuubi wakes up.

And he needs to do this anyway. If he couldn't be the hero who defeated Pain, he could at least be the hard-working ninja who helped clean up the aftermath.

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><p>And done!<p>

"You don't understand!" - Naruto sounding his age. LOL teenagers :P.

But yeah as you see Naruto and Kyuubi are really sticking it to each other. Not holding back at all. But time soothes anger so maybe when Kyuubi wakes up they'll be less hostile :D(lol).

I'm going to try my ABSOLUTE best to update this sooner than four months. The mini-writer's block came because I didn't know how to connect a passage of time with Naruto finding out all that happened in the village. And of course with the destruction how was he going to research the seal...and other problems...etc. I FINALLY got through it by realizing Kyuubi could just fall asleep lol. I t made everything easier.

Check my profile to see the status of my other stories(next to be updated is October 10th). Also I have a poll up. Please check it out if you have the time :)!

Please tell me what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

Finally here is chapter 5!

This is a little short and for that I am sorry. However I feel it covers everything I needed to cover in this chapter.

_Anon Review Reply:_

_Guest- Ah thanks :D! Well I can't exactly tell you if that's why you like this story better but I wouldn't be surprised XD. Some people just do not like AU and I understand and respect that. But I'm glad you at least like what I write :D. Well that's good because you will see A LOT of 'teasing' going on between the two for a while ;P._

_I can't say HOW successful he will be, but I can say the thought won't stop him from trying lol._

_I know :). Long hair represents regality, elegance, and power haha. In-story, his reason for wanting a hair-cut is that it reminds him of Kushina and Mito and he hates that. Personally though I prefer him with short hair. It's a really small thing though._

_Thank you!_

And that's it!

Please enjoy!

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><p>When Kyuubi woke up it was pitch black outside and he was alone.<p>

He was surprised when he felt the soft mattress under him instead of the hard floor. He could've sworn Naruto would be petty enough to push him to the floor in his sleep and not let the demon enjoy the comforts of soft bedding. But dwelling on Naruto's incredibly strange act of what could be kindness, was not as joyful as dwelling on the fact that Kyuubi woke up and was _alone_.

He was actually alone. No Naruto, no jinchuuriki, just him. Kyuubi hasn't been by himself since before Mito which was ages ago.

And he had stretching room. A rare, happy smile appeared on Kyuubi's face as he rolled onto his back and stretched across Naruto's bed. He already knew he would only be able to grant himself pure happiness in moments like these. Complete solitude after everything he had gone through was such a joy and he would take advantage of it. He had to because as soon as Naruto comes back it would be back to being miserable again.

Kyuubi sighed, happy mood gone with that thought. It was easy to put a front up of being in control and to keep on snickering. It was so easy to hide how completely miserable he truly felt because Naruto was so blind to everything about him. He hardly noticed anything. This was a good thing admittedly. Kyuubi might actually take a leaf from Naruto's book and threaten suicide if he **ever** received pity from the blond. There would be no way he could fall any further than that.

Though it was hard to believe he wasn't at his lowest point already. His first chance at freedom in years and he can't even enjoy it. He can't be happy knowing Naruto is dead set on taking it away as soon as possible. And what's worse, he's stuck in a form he can hardly use. His clumsy attempts at sneaking into this building were were complete embarrassments for one so prideful such as him. The only plus was annoying the hell out of his vessel, whose baby-like sneers at his ability were amusing to see. But still he hated it. He had never had to sneak anywhere in his life before so he had no experience doing it, but he hated it.

And to avoid ever doing it again, Kyuubi needed to get out of this situation. He was determined to escape, but just like Naruto and his seal business, Kyuubi had obstacles too. There were so many things he didn't know what to do about yet.

His power for instance, what should he do there? He wasn't exactly lying to Naruto about building up his power, but he wasn't exactly telling the truth either. He was born with his power. He was born a nine-tailed fox. Those tails had been with his all his life and like many things one is used to, he can't exactly tell if he was always as strong as he was or if, like he told Naruto, it was something he trained for. Either way, in the heat of anger he was hoping the 'I-worked-for-my-power' spiel would incite at least a little empathy but apparently things were just too horrible between Naruto and him. All it did was confirm that Kyuubi needed to get his power back somehow because he honestly doesn't know if he'll ever get it back if he doesn't.

And of course, he needed to tear the connection between their lives so that if Naruto ever dies he would stay alive. It shouldn't be impossible to figure out. The seal was already designed so that if Kyuubi ever left Naruto would die. Problem is he left in an unorthodox way which is probably why they are both still alive. But if he were to unseal his power the _normal_ way, would the effect on Naruto's life be the same?

But, Kyuubi frowned, if Naruto still died from that, would he die too? It was back to square one, Kyuubi thought gritting his teeth. There had to be a way to combat this, there had to. This one-way life thing had to be the second most annoying part of this whole thing. Knowing his life was tied to an impulsive and reckless kid did not help him sleep at night, even when he was still in the seal.

It was then that the door to the apartment opened and Naruto slowly shuffled in. Kyuubi sat up and turned to face him. He looked worse than when Kyuubi had seen him last. Dirt, grime, and blood caked his skin and clothes and his dirty, golden blond hair lay limp over his forehead as his carefully guarded forehead-protector was strangely missing.

He was frowning and there was a haunted look in his blue eyes. Kyuubi could pick up traces of emotions coming from the 16-year-old. Downtrodden, heart wrenching, depressing emotions.

But he didn't care.

"Oh good you're home. Make me dinner I'm hungry."

"Oh look he demands food from me," Naruto muttered rolling his eyes. Kyuubi was surprised at how quickly his vessel responded, but he didn't stop.

"This body demands nutrients."

"Go chew on wood," Naruto said flipping the bird. "I'll be damned if I ever cook for a monster."

"Or you'll be someone with a heart who does not let silly prejudices get in the way of your hospitality."

Naruto simply stared at him and crossed his arms. Kyuubi didn't want to admit it but the stare did unnerve him a little. Unlike before, Kyuubi wasn't the cause of it.

"Starve to death."

Kyuubi paused.

And he got a wicked theory. A risky, wicked theory. But one he really wanted to test. It was a crazy, crazy risk.

But to able to put Naruto in his shoes would be so, so worth it. He needed to know how the brat would react to knowing that for once, his life literally was in Kyuubi's hands. And if nothing else, perhaps a threat to his own life would finally shake him up. Killing Pain and threatening his friends either did nothing or worked against him. Maybe he could spin this to work in his favor.

"Alright. ...But...what will that mean for you?"

"It'll mean nothing but joy and happiness to finally have you out of my hair."

"No Naruto. I mean, before it was always if you died, I died. But now that the seal is so plainly messed up, perhaps the shoe is on the other foot now."

At that Kyuubi was pleased to see Naruto slowly drop his arms to side and that unnerving stare, an expression so foreign on his face, was replaced with a wary, worried, and confused look.

"...What are you saying?"

"I think even you know what I'm saying Naruto," Kyuubi stood up and walked over to Naruto's kitchen area. He could feel the boy tense up when he grabbed a large butcher knife. Facing Naruto, he slowly ran his finger along the edge. He was going to enjoy this.

"I'm saying that you can hold my tails hostage, but I wonder if I can hold your life hostage. If I die," Kyuubi looks straight into his eyes. "You die."

"What about your tails?!" Naruto immediately responded. The slight tremble in his voice and the underlying anxiety and fear was exactly what Kyuubi was looking for.

Kyuubi let out a bark of laughter. "I ALWAYS come back Naruto! Haven't they told you that? Kill me and you've only deterred a 'natural disaster' for a few years. Despite your feelings for me I'm too _damn_ important to be killed off for good. And when I do come back I can just build up my power again, just like you said. However, YOU can't come back. You will never be Hokage, you will leave many unfulfilled promises behind, and those people you care about so much will grieve your death but will very quickly move on. How's that? So many miserable consequences for you because YOU let me starve."

The look on Naruto's face made Kyuubi's insides tingle with glee. He looked like a deer staring his predator in the eyes.

"I-I...That's...A stretch-"

"Not a stretch Naruto," Kyuubi clarified, still running his finger along the knife. "I'm leaving your friends alone. Just _you_ will be taken down with me. Poetic justice I like to think of it as. All of these years we've known each other and you've never given a rat's ass about me. Now your neglect and lack of care will kill you in the end. Because you want me to try to survive in un-survivable conditions. I don't know what I'm doing here Naruto. I need guidance," the monster pouted in a mocking way before smirking a psychotic smirk.

He held the knife out towards Naruto. "So if you want, we can test that theory out. I'm giving you the perfect chance to end it all right now. You can take this knife and do whatever you want with it. I won't stop you."

He was lying, just a little, with that last sentence.

Naruto stood still for what felt like the longest time. He didn't move a muscle and Kyuubi wondered if the boy somehow went into shock. But then one arm slowly and shakily rose and Naruto's fingers wrapped around the edge of the knife. Kyuubi let him have the kitchen utensil without resistance and inwardly prepared himself for what Naruto would do.

His vessel stood still for several long seconds, his head bowed so that his bangs blocked his eyes from view. The tailed beast could not pick up any kind of emotion coming from the boy either. Naruto then turned to the side and slowly shuffled to the kitchen area where he dropped the knife on the counter, reached up and opened one of his cupboards, and pulled out one of his many cup ramens.

Kyuubi smirked. He knew his vessel all too well.

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><p>"You aren't going to eat?" Kyuubi asked the boy sitting across from him. As expected, Naruto was silent. He was silent when he cooked the ramen, he was silent when made Kyuubi's bowl, and now he was silent as Kyuubi tried to eat. He wasn't even scolding him for constantly dropping the noodles on the floor or spilling the broth as he struggled with using chopsticks.<p>

Instead Naruto stared at the table only occasionally glancing at him with a look of murder in his eyes.

Kyuubi wasn't intimated. Not at all. Naruto could drown in his bubbling hatred for him all he wanted. Not only could it not compare to the tailed beast's, he knew there was nothing Naruto could do to act on it. The only thing Naruto could hold against him is the seal, and Kyuubi already had a plan in mind for combating that. Speaking of which, now would be a good time to put that plan in motion.

"Whatever research you need done for the seal, you should bring it here, to the apartment."

"And have you jeopardize my mission? Forget it!" Naruto finally spoke, his voice filled with more revulsion than he had ever heard coming from the blond. A remarkable emotion for Kyuubi to hear from Naruto as it reminded him of what truly lied in the boy's heart.

"It's a smart suggestion you little imbecile. Imagine what people are going to think if they see you researching the seal. 'What's he doing?' 'Is there something wrong?' 'I _knew _he'd mess up somehow.' 'We should inform someone and see him locked up for letting the Kyuubi out.' 'A failure and a monster, how could we ever see him as anything different?'"

"Okay! Okay! Shut up!" Naruto glowered fiercely at him. "Why do you keep doing this?!" He shouted. "Why do you keep taunting me? All my life you've done nothing but try and tear me down while only pretending to help me! I know you really you hate my guts and are trying to break me and escape, but what's the point of doing it now!? Why can't we just go on silently hating each other and ignoring each other for the rest of our lives?!"

"All your life? You slow-brained twit. Before now we've only had two face-to-face conversations and neither of them involved me making fun of you though I really, really should've," Kyuubi pointed out. What he did not point out, was his frustrated rant at an unconscious Naruto during the Valley of End.

"This is only years of pent-up rebuttal Naruto. Perhaps for all the times you spoke of me in such a negative manner," He responded glaring back. He wouldn't go as far as calling Naruto speaking about him behind his back as betrayal. Not even close. But he did not feel good feelings when the boy spoke to his teachers about him. But even back then he knew Naruto coming to talk to him was nothing but a pipe dream anyway.

"So you're still angry at everything and this is just your revenge? This is pathetic revenge if you ask me!"

"What would you know about revenge? You tackled Pain with a vengeance and couldn't even do that right. But don't worry; I'm sure your perverted mentor is smiling down on you at this second."

Naruto was right though. He was angry. He hated his vessel. And he was really, really glad that he now had the opportunity to finally express it.

"As for me? I seem to be doing a great job getting under your skin which is exactly what I wanted."

Naruto was trembling as he spoke these next words to Kyuubi, but his voice was steady and cold.

"This is all a sick joke to you. Fine. Let it be that. You should enjoy it and have your laugh now because I'm going to reseal you so quick you won't even see it coming."

"I didn't doubt that you would do everything you _can_ to reseal me as fast as possible. That's why I've already figure out how I'm going to live for the next fifty years. I should have enough time to travel the countries sixty times over before you could even come close to the knowledge of seals your predecessors have." Kyuubi smiled an innocently taunting smile. "You'll be studying for a long time Naruto."

"I'll get you back inside of me within the year!"

Kyuubi scoffed and laughed mockingly. "Better not make a promise on that."

He turned around, leaving his leftovers and mess for Naruto to clean up, and walked towards Naruto's bed. Although the sleep he had was good, more shut-eye felt appropriate right about now.

He was shocked when he felt two hands roughly grab his shoulders and pull him back causing him to stumble and fall back onto the floor. He landed with a thud on the hard material and cursed aloud at the pain ringing through his head and back. Physical pain was not something he had experienced often, if ever before. He couldn't even remember the sting of having his tails impaled and his body stretched out in an almost shameful display while in Kushina's seal.

So this ache, this sharp ache that spread throughout his whole body with the point of impact being the worst. His joints and muscles froze and he wondered if that gasping noise wasn't just in his mind. It felt like the pain was crawling or slithering underneath his skin and that was the only thing he could feel and think. His vision was a blur of the dark colors of Naruto's ceiling, and the bright gold of his vessel's hair. The gasping noise was loud but not as loud as the ringing. What emotion he felt he couldn't tell. He felt so detached from his body and at the same time like his senses were on overdrive.

He felt like it lasted minutes, like time slowed down. But it was only three seconds. It took three seconds for his chakra to finally catch up and heal. The familiar warmth calmed him immensely and slowly but surely, the ringing stopped, the gasping stopped, the feeling stopped, and the pain stopped.

And when he came to and became aware of his surroundings again, he stared up into Naruto's cold blue eyes.

"You sleep on the floor."

And then Naruto stomped on his chest, causing another surge of unfamiliar pain to course through him, on his way to the bed. Kyuubi growled silently from where he laid. The slight shock he was experiencing, caused by the new pain and his initial reaction to it, combined with his slight chakra exhaustion from healing himself rendered him unable to move.

He heard Naruto get into his bed and under the covers and as he lay there on the ground he got the feeling the brat was going to put one hell of a fight up against him.

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><p>And done!<p>

Again sorry it is short.

Alright I think this wraps up all of the set up. The next chapter should have the plot finally moving forward.

Kyuubi experiences his first freak out here. Feel bad for him. It had a point. And I did try. For the record the 'shock' he experienced wasn't a physical shock as that is life-threatening. It the psychological one. It's his first(remembered) experience of physical pain and because a human body is most likely very different from his regular body...yeah. Point is it wasn't there for nothing and I tried to practice describing that kind of scene. I hope I didn't fail(or fail too hard at least).

Okay and I know Kyuubi and Naruto are being super harsh towards each other, but I kind of feel it is necessary.

We never actually got this kind of closure from them in canon. Like I said they went from point A to point C and skipped most of B. I would've loved to see them address many issues between them before they became friends so that's what I'm going to do here. They are going to get all of the hate for each other out before they start finally getting along.

So it's going to be slowfully, slowfully slow like Naruto in his apartment. Okay not THAT slow lol. But slower than October 10th and CC :P.

And you can always remind yourself what is going to happen in the end anyway XD.

Also let me thank everyone for being patient with this story. This story is literally the hardest for me to write haha. Aside from time constraints, for some reason it is so much easier to think of ideas for my other stories than this one. But I don't want to abandon this because every time I do finish a chapter, I feel a sense of accomplishment :)!

So yeah I actually have a good idea for the next chapter!

Hope you enjoyed this, please tell me what you think.


	6. Chapter 6

And here is chapter 6!

I am soooooooooooo sorry for the long wait! For those who looked at October 10th yeah I sort of explained it there but if you didn't. I was distracted a lot. College had a lot to do with it of course and so did other goodies :P. Anyways I'm sorry I slipped so much on my updating schedule and I will try hard not to do that again.

**Also** in case it needs to be said, on my profile I regularly put the the status of the next chapter. I even include a word count :D! And sometimes I update it more than once a day(usually if I write more than 200 words). So if you're ever curious at what's going on you may check my profile :)!

So this chapter is the longest one so far being over 5000 words. And the plot actually starts yay :D!.

**NOTE**: Obligatory 'Sakura is useful' scene(s) in this chapter. I TRIED hard to make it seem more platonic if you don't like NaruSaku but if it comes off as romantic and you don't like it I'm sorry. Just know that it ends with KyuuNaru. Also mention of Hinata's feelings.

_Anon Review Reply_

_Guest 1- Haha yeah Kyuubi's supposed to be mean But don't worry Naruto can always fight back and get revenge ;P. Thanks for your review :)!_

_Guest 2- My pleasure :)! Glad you liked that chapter! Yeah it kind of occured to me that if Kyuubi has never been in a human body he would have no idea how it works/functions and it would be so funny to write about his failures. In this chapter I had to skip over some since it is in Naruto's POV. But Kyuubi's still gonna fail a lot hehe._

_YES! Thank you! Rushed is exactly the word I'd use to describe it. That won't happen here I assure you. Though I will admit that the interactions between Kakashi and Kyuubi were slightly humorous so it sucks I won't be able to do that :P. Oh well at least there is Iruka._

_Hah! I think a lot of us liked the Naruto-Sasuke rivalry back in part 1. I certainly did. Gee I hope so! Development there is obviously going to move a bit faster than here but I'm treating both with care and trying really, really hard to keep it realistic(and at the same time not have it drag on. I now understand the value of fanservice :D!)_

_Yes he does. Keep reading to see if he keeps it ;)!_

_Lol your English is fine! Thanks for your review :D!_

That's all.

Hope you enjoy the 6th chapter! Just went thru and edited some minor mistakes but this is still UNBETA'D

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><p>When Naruto wakes up he sees Kyuubi holding a knife in his hand.<p>

He tenses for a few quick milliseconds, his instincts screaming orders at him. They quiet down the moment he sees that he isn't being attacked...Kyuubi is cutting himself. He watched wide-eyed as Kyuubi pricked his finger with a knife, a bored expression on the red-head's face as his red eyes followed the blood trail down to his hand. His pink tongue darted out and lapped up the blood and Naruto could see his finger had healed.

He couldn't contain his curiosity.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting used to pain," Kyuubi answered. Naruto was surprised he did. He was dreading the back and forth games he KNEW Kyuubi was going to play. But this 'game' is kind of odd. Naruto nearly cringed when he saw Kyuubi drop the knife and start twisting his thumb and did actually do so when he heard the 'crack'. Apparently that too much for Kyuubi as the demon let out a gasp. Naruto felt a small chakra spike come from him as he held his broken thumb in his grip. When he pulled away it was healed but Kyuubi stilled rubbed it soothingly and muttered, "Too much" under his breath.

"Why are you doing that?" Naruto couldn't stop himself from asking. Kyuubi turned his gaze towards him and something about those red eyes and that blank expression unnerved him.

"Because last night you caught me off guard with your little sneak attack. That won't happen again."

Oh that. But instead of saying anything about that Naruto focused on the now.

"You got blood on my floor. And I see you left your mess out!" Naruto glared at the ramen cup still tipped over on the table and the cold noodles on his floor. The smell of old ramen now will probably linger for a few days. But secretly Naruto was grateful for the smell of ramen was much more tolerable than the smell of the dead.

Still suddenly everything felt dirty. His bed felt dirty. His apartment felt dirty. Kyuubi felt dirty. He felt dirty. Konoha felt dirty. He just wished that a giant waterfall of soap and bubbles would fall out of the sky and wash over Konoha and when it all stopped the village and everyone in it would be sparkling clean again.

But that went way beyond wishful thinking. Things won't change unless Naruto gets up and does something.

"Last night, you said we can ignore each other for the rest of our lives. I just wanted to let you know that this is possible as I will outlive you."

Naruto completely ignored Kyuubi's statement. He was a mess. He needed a bath. Kyuubi needed one too.

"You stink," he said.

"Well you don't exactly smell like roses either. And who do you think has the more sensitive sense of smell? I deserve your cooperation for putting up with that for this long and not complaining until you brought it up."

"You deserve a lot of things I think. But the only thing you are going to get right now is a bath."

"A bath? You're lucky I'm still wearing the clothes you gave me. I had every urge to rip these garments off along with my hair."

Speaking of hair, Naruto didn't want to comment on it but Kyuubi sure did a number to his. Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion as he looked at the butchered, uneven mess on top of Kyuubi's head. To his shoulders in the back, to his ears at the sides, and barely touching his red eyes in the front, and Naruto to wince at the top which was a look even he wouldn't be seen in public with.

Not that he cared at all about Kyuubi's looks. And judging by what he sees it appears Kyuubi didn't care either. But still even he had an urge to go through it with a comb or something and maybe even grab some scissors and snip a little, just so that Kyuubi would look at least a little presentable. Now he sort of understood why Sakura nagged him about his hair sometimes.

But then Naruto had thought. Where exactly did Kyuubi cut his hair?

"Where's the mess!?" He asked a bit angrily.

"Where there should've been a mirror obviously."

Naruto quickly untangled himself from his sheets and ran into his bathroom. He let out an angry groan as he saw all the red and black hair on the floor. Turning to Kyuubi he shouted, "Okay you are going to clean ALL OF THIS up! And you're going to clean the ramen and the blood too!" And he pointed at all of the messes Kyuubi made since he got here.

Kyuubi lazily glanced at him, "With what?"

"Your hands!" Naruto said semi-seriously. If he needed a mop or broom fine, Naruto will provide one. But first he was going to clean the hard way.

"Hah. No."

"Do it! Or I'll-"

"We are NOT going down that road again are we? Face it we're at a standstill there."

"I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say if you don't clean this mess up then I'll...I'll...I'll think of something."

"Wow. I'm terrified. I better do what you say before you actually think."

"JUST DO IT! I'm frustrated enough already and if you keep pushing me I'll...I'll fight you!"

"You'll fight me? Yeah right as if you can even beat me. I destroyed Pain or did you forget?" And to Naruto's surprise he could see Kyuubi's grin stretch a bit too wide. An action that was very familiar to him. So he smirked back.

"But like you said we're at a standstill so you can't kill me. And you don't know how to actually _fight _in that body do you? There's no element of luck or surprise or whatever it is you used to beat Pain because I know how clumsy you are. Yeah...okay I can incapacitate you IF I wanted to you know. So you better do as I say or else you won't be able to move at all again!"

Kyuubi's growl was low and menacing but Naruto wasn't bothered. Not when he saw Kyuubi get up and actually go do what he was told.

"And while you clean all this up I'm going to go find some supplies to fix this wall with. We're going to get clean tonight whether you want to or not."

"I don't care what you do Naruto. Just be sure to bring back some sealing stuff."

"Don't tell me what to do," Naruto mumbled under his breath. He's sure Kyuubi still heard his words but he left his apartment before the demon could reply and Naruto got roped into an arguing match that would leave one or both too frustrated to even function.

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><p>It took Naruto several hours to make it back to his apartment. But that was because he kept on getting sidetracked and helping people. Sometimes he would even offer the wood he bought to others requiring him to keep going back to buy some more.<p>

But true to his word that night, with the help of some clones, Naruto got his wall fixed. The plumbing was a little wonky but with the help of buckets Naruto managed to get himself a nice cleansing bath and force Kyuubi to take one as well. Any awkwardness was immediately nullified by the fighting, both verbally and physically, that took place during the bath.

Shoving, hair pulling, hitting, insults, making fun of body parts...by the time it was over, Naruto was so done with his demon that he locked him in the bathroom for the rest of the night; only opening the door once to throw some food in. Both men went to sleep angry.

In the morning, Naruto got up still mad but feeling the tiniest bit merciful due to what the day was. He first got dressed in his black garbs and didn't bother with breakfast because he wasn't hungry at all. He then opened the bathroom door and wasn't surprised to see Kyuubi awake, but he was surprised to see the bathroom still intact. Still he didn't say anything other than,

"I'm going out. Behave until I get back."

"Leaving again huh?" Kyuubi sneered. "Tell me just how much work have you gotten done on our situation?"

"What? Are you lonely here by yourself? Is that it?"

Kyuubi looked incredulous at that. "Hardly. These moments of solitude have been the best that I can remember since I've been sealed away. Surprise, surprise humans make terrible companions."

"You bring it on yourself!" Naruto growled.

"Of course," Kyuubi rolled his eyes. "Anyway the more correct word to use would be 'bored'. You're not doing anything to entertain or help me you horrible host! I had to learn how to work everything in here by myself! Including the porcelain thing!"

"There are some things that are a lot more important to handle right now! And I'm perfectly fine with you trying to entertain yourself so long as you don't break anything."

"Why not just bring back some books or scrolls and let _m_e do all the research?"

"Nice try. But there's no way I'll let you 'help' me. You would try to sabotage my research wouldn't you?"

"Is it really that surprising? You're trying to seal me away."

"_Lock_ you away. You're a bad demon! You kill and hurt people for fun! It's like locking you up in prison for your crimes against humanity. Let me tell you if _I_ did what you did I'd let myself get arrested with no fighting-"

"No you wouldn't!"

"-Because I know I deserve to locked up! You obviously lack the compassion to see that. And nothing will change the fact that you started-"

"I didn't start **anything**!"

"What?" Naruto asked looking shocked. Kyuubi just turned away.

"Forget it. Take your righteousness to whatever wedding you're going to."

"It's a funeral."

"I DON'T CARE!" Kyuubi practically roared. That combined with the rage Naruto could clearly feel coming from the demon, stopped him in his tracks. Although the blond was confident in his abilities to best the Kyuubi in a fight that was still a last resort option he wanted to avoid if he could. After all an all-out fight would draw immediate attention. Especially with recent events.

"...Fine. I'll probably be gone for a while and I won't be able to check up on you."

"..."

"...Don't break anything."

Naruto heads out, closes the door, takes two steps, and hears the sound of glass breaking from inside his apartment. With a loud sigh, he keeps walking.

* * *

><p>When he met up with Sakura, she was dressed in her funeral wear but looked completely composed. However she didn't act that way.<p>

The first thing she did when she noticed him was almost roughly shove his now clean forehead protector into his hands and very quickly say, "Here'syourforeheadprotector! Allclean!"

And then she brought her arms to her sides and didn't look him in the eye. He gave her a few seconds to gather her thoughts again.

Kakashi was dead.

Shizune was dead.

Jiraiya was dead.

Pa was dead.

And Tsunade's in coma.

It's too much right now, Naruto knew. Too much for the both of them. The only hope they had now was that Tsunade would recover and even that task fell on his pink-haired teammate. Without Shizune there, she was the only one skilled enough to help Tsunade. They will both have to walk into this funeral ready to say good-bye and take on the (_too large_) responsibilities their mentors left them. Shikamaru with his words of wisdom or Iruka with his words of comfort would be all too good have right now. Because Naruto didn't know what he could say that could make Sakura and him feel better at the moment. Especially when Sakura was obviously trying hard to keep herself together.

So he didn't even try. Mumbling "thanks" for his protector before tying it around his neck, he then asked softly, "Ready to go?"

She took a few deep breaths before nodding quietly. They weren't walking long before Sakura grabbed Naruto's hand in a vice grip.

It hurt a bit, but Naruto squeezed back just as tightly.

* * *

><p>The funeral is as bleak and depressing as previous funerals. Even more so probably. It wasn't raining, but Naruto was still getting wet because Sakura was crying into his shoulder.<p>

"K-K-K-Kakashi-shi-sen-sen-seeeeei! S-Shi-Shi-Shizune!"

Naruto starts thinking about how two more of his teachers died, Pa and Kakashi. With Pa's death he wonders what will happen to Sage Mode. Who will teach it now that Pa was gone? There was Ma but could she do it? Would Naruto have to continue the line? Was he the last person who knew how to do Sage Mode? Should he teach it if that's the case? Who should he teach it to? His future children? Or students like Konohamaru? Or both? Should he set up a school offering lessons on how to get into Sage Mode? But what if he teaches the wrong person?

What if he ends up like Kakashi-sensei, and accidentally teaches a Sasuke?

Before his thoughts could go down _that_ dark path, Sakura thankfully distracted him.

"I couldn't save them Naruto," She sobbed. "I-I found them too late. I tried-I tried so hard but I couldn't give them their lives back!"

"It's okay Sakura," Naruto reassured her as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. If he were being honest he would admit that he wished she would try and comfort him too. It would be the first time since their missing teammate left that they could help each other without mentioning him.

But Naruto wanted to keep staying strong and helping Sakura helped him to do just that.

"Don't beat yourself up over it. They wouldn't want you to. Like you said you tried your _best_. And think about all the people you _did_ save. So many people that would've died didn't because of you. Including some people we know,"

And with that Naruto glanced over to where the Hyuugas were standing. Hinata was standing right in the center, between her father and Neji. She looked just as sad and depressed as the rest of them but perhaps because her family was right there she held herself in a composed manner. Not a tear to be seen although he could pick up the slight tremble of her lips.

He stared longer than he meant to because then she looks at him and they meet eyes. Before, it was always Hinata who looked away, usually with rosy red cheeks. But this time it was Naruto who quickly looked away, sans blush.

He still had no idea what to say to her. She was a friend sure but she nearly died confessing her love to him. To _him_. All this time and he never even knew someone actually liked him like that. And now he didn't even know what to do and other than forget it because this really wasn't the time for such thoughts.

"Shizune was my mentor. My big sister," Sakura quietly sniffled. "And what-what will we do without Kakashi-sensei? We-we-things won't be the same without him."

Right...With Kakashi-sensei's death...even if they do bring Sasuke back now, Team 7 will never be complete again. The dam he had put up to block the tears was starting to crumble, but he only sniffled and subtly tried to hold his head back to keep them in. He will only cry when he's alone.

* * *

><p>After the funeral it was downtime at one of the few working restaurants. Naruto and Sakura had actually been invited to a larger dinner thanks to their outstanding efforts in the fight, but both declined to enjoy a quieter one. Together they sat at a table, slurping down drink after drink as neither of their stomachs could handle solids. They had paid for their drinks before they got them at Naruto's insistence. He had something he wanted to do and he wanted to do it fast after they'd eaten.<p>

It was quiet for the first few minutes, aside from Sakura's occasional sniffles and hiccups, but Naruto knew he eventually had to bring this particular subject up. He wished the timing could've been better, but he knew what would happen if he went back home empty-handed once again.

"Hey Sakura? Do you know when the library will be rebuilt? Or when all the books will be available?" He asked. Sakura paused in the sipping of her drink and when she spoke to Naruto's great joy her voice wasn't heavy with tears anymore. Good. Her crying always left a heavy feeling in his gut.

"All of the books and scrolls from all the libraries have been recovered and are now-" She paused to sniffle. "-Are now being held and organized in a more secure place. Only certain personnel are allowed in at the moment. I can-I can get you something if you'd like."

"Why, you have access?"

"Yes Naruto. I have access. I need the medical textbooks. Par-Particularly ones on comas..."

_Right_, Naruto thought wincing. Rather than drag on an awkward conversation, or maybe he just knew Sakura didn't want to talk about it right now, Naruto simply stated his request.

"I need any and all books and scrolls on sealing. Anything," he had to say anything to draw away suspicion. If he said he need things specifically based on his seal, they'll know immediately. Sakura looked at him, her shimmering green eyes wide in confusion.

"Why?"

"I'm working on something. You'll find out soon enough," Naruto answered nervously. He hoped Sakura would just trust him on this.

"Something to prevent something like this from ever happening again?"

In sense...yeah he was. So he nodded. Sakura nodded back.

"Okay. The new library is open 24/7 so once we finish here we can go and grab what you need."

"Thanks Sakura," Naruto smiled gratefully. Sakura returned it with a smile of her own. But instead of 'you're welcome' or any other variation of that, she said something that stopped him in his tracks.

"You know I trust you completely right Naruto? I don't know what it was that happened before Pain died. I'm assuming it had something to do with your...you know...with the Kyuubi. But whatever it was you handled it. You controlled it and you took care of the greatest threat to Konoha since Kyuubi's attack. You did so well. I'm really proud of you, you know."

He had been getting compliments like that every time he shows his face. The most common is that he's a hero, just like dear old dad. He's been trying to see the good side. As long as they think it was him then his secret about Kyuubi was safe. But it was hard to handle. A grin, a quick 'thank you', and then disappearing as fast as he could did him good so far. But hearing this from _Sakura_...

"Don't say that to me."

"Why not? You deserve it. Yeah I'll miss Kakashi-sensei and Shizune and my heart goes out to all the people that died but," she took a deep breath. "You saved everyone else. I'm just one medic; I couldn't heal everyone in Konoha if I tried. But you Naruto, you tried and you _saved_ everyone. And now look at everyone who respects you now! I was talking to Iruka-sensei earlier and we were remembering when you were just a little brat who ran around causing trouble. Now you're a hero and instead of glares everyone's sending you smiles now!"

This was getting to be too much. Way, way too much. Was she feeling guilty because he had to comfort her earlier? Forget what he had thought then. He didn't want to be comforted if it meant this, a cold feeling of guilt practically swallowing up his insides. Sakura placing her small hand on his own was just the icing on the bitterest cake ever.

"If anyone should be feeling accomplished now, it's you."

Accomplishment surprisingly didn't feel too good.

"We should go," he said standing up abruptly. "I need to get started right away."

He ignored Sakura's bewildered look. It didn't matter to him if she thought he was acting strange or whatever. Naruto just wanted to go get what he needed and get home immediately.

"I guess," Sakura started to say as she also stood up, "Embarrassment is to be expected. But don't worry Naruto it'll pass over soon and you'll feel proud of yourself. I'm sure of it!"

If that's what she thought...

"But let me give one last proper thank you," the pink-haired girl twiddled her fingers and blushed a little but Naruto paid it little mind. He wanted to rush now.

"No no it's fine-"

"Naruto let me thank you!" At the sight of Sakura's classic anger, Naruto quickly gave in. At least _that_ was something he was used to.

So Sakura walked up to him. She wrapped one arm around his back and used the other to cup his cheek, leaned up and...

Hugged him.

Just hugged him and whispered another soft "thank you" in his ear.

And Naruto understood. A hug from Sakura was something he had been wanting since he was 12-years-old. And he could see random people stop and look, some curious most smiling.

Ask him before the Pain attack, and he'd tell you he'd _kill_ for a moment like this.

But right now, the torrent of guilt inside him only grew bigger and if asked, he'd tell you he'd _kill_ to avoid moments like this from now until he died.

Or maybe from now until Kyuubi was resealed and the next chance at a heroic redemption came his way.

* * *

><p>When he got back to his apartment, he was pleasantly surprised to see it was actually clean. Kyuubi was sitting on the floor, leaning on his bed waiting for him. Or maybe he was waiting for him, but is now resting his eyes.<p>

Behind Naruto his clones were setting the books and scrolls on the table and then disappearing. But instead of getting right to work all that came to mind was what Kyuubi said before he left, about him not starting it. Whatever 'it' was. The attack on Konoha? The entire beef with Konoha? Naruto wasn't sure. And he wasn't sure if there was anything to be unsure about either. Kyuubi certainly looked serious when he stated that. But that didn't mean much considering who he was dealing with. Kyuubi could lie to him. He would do it easily Naruto knew. Maybe not for sympathy or pity points, but to take advantage of Naruto's hospitality and kinder nature.

He would do it. Naruto _knew_ this.

And yet, something nagged at him. Kyuubi, he also knew, was a centuries old demon with tons of knowledge. He would definitely know more about the attack than he did. Pain, before he died, said much about truth and suffering. And Sakura was right that people glared at him before for his pranks, but what she didn't say is people glared at him before that. They glared when he _didn't do anything wrong_ and it was because of the beast sitting in front him.

But...but would it be completely outlandish to believe that Kyuubi might have something to say? Naruto shook his head, wondering where this sudden trust for one of his worst enemies came from. It's not even like...well Kyuubi _did_ clean of his apartment. And killed Pain. And Naruto was still taking the credit.

"About what you said earlier..." Naruto said immediately waking the demon up, "About you 'not starting it' what did you mean?"

The demon yawned and rubbed his eye. "Hmm. I leave you to figure it out."

"I'm trying to see it from your side you know. Don't play games if you want me to understand," Naruto said glaring.

"It's more than you are willing to listen to. Let's leave it at that."

"I can't believe this. Why don't I just chalk it up to you lying?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"You lie all the time! You lied earlier when I was fighting Pain!"

"I _would've_ taken your pain away you know. You may not agree with the method or the result, but I assure you the pain would've been gone. HAHAHAHA!"

Naruto gritted his teeth and immediately stomped to and sat at the table. He picked up a beginner scroll and focused all of his attention to it. How stupid. Giving Kyuubi a chance to explain himself. Completely stupid. Ignore him, he thought. Just ignore him. But he couldn't. Not when he heard Kyuubi walk up beside him.

"Go away," he demanded not looking away from the scroll in his hands.

"Let me help you."

"No."

"Come on."

"No Kyuubi!" And then the monster had the gall to ignore him and reach for one of the many scrolls anyway. Naruto swiftly smacked his hand away. But Kyuubi even ignored that and grabbed a scroll with his other hand. Naruto had enough. Standing up he shouted,

"NO! PUT THAT BACK!"

"I just want to help," Kyuubi smiled in what was obviously supposed to be a kind, disarming smile. Naruto saw right through it.

"You're only going to 'help' yourself! You _know _you aren't trying to get sealed back into me."

"Well _you_ know it'll take forever for any progress to be made on your own," Kyuubi shrugged. "Meanwhile I am perfectly willing to do research of my own and sell you the information I get."

"Wha-? Sell?!"

"Yes Naruto. I research and help you figure out seal knowledge and I will tell you what I find out for a price."

"Forget it!" He yelled reaching out to grab the scroll Kyuubi held. Kyuubi held it out of reach and with an annoyed expression on his face he said,

"I am NOT going to sit here and do nothing!"

"You might as well do nothing for all the help you're going to be. You must be the biggest idiot in the world if you think I'm going to believe you suddenly had a change heart and want to help!"

Naruto jumped for the scroll again but Kyuubi jumped away just as quickly. The monster had a stupidly annoying playful grin on his face, as if this was fun time or something. And Naruto, thinking about the time he was wasting try to get the scroll back, was getting the increasing urge to make his next leap not involve grabbing the scroll, but knocking Kyuubi out. In fact, why not?

"Maybe a change of heart is a bit of stretch-!" Damn. Naruto leaped towards him again but apparently Kyuubi was doing more than cleaning when Naruto was away. There's no way he could be this fast. He certainly wasn't before. Kyuubi continued what he was saying.

"But certainly you could believe that I want a thrill."

"What thrill-urgh!" Damn it! Damn it! Naruto thought as he failed yet again to stop Kyuubi. His apartment isn't even that big when you don't include the bathroom and the training room. And they're exactly the same size. This shouldn't be so hard.

"The thrill of fighting a worthy opponent. Not sure if you understand since I'm sure your fight, if you can call it that, with the Uch-"

"It's only a thrill if you know you're going to come out on top! I'm not a fool Kyuubi don't treat me as if I'm dumb!" And to prove it, Naruto paused in his attacking and started trying to plan a more efficient way to get Kyuubi to stop moving. Shadow clones of course.

"Oh but you are. Rude too. And you do know that there is also a thrill that comes with the unknown. I mean come on. I may be insanely confident in my abilities and knowledge over yours but despite that you are the only one in this village, with a name that I know and is alive, that I feel can actually cause me some trouble. That's a compliment Naruto so you better take it as one."

A compliment from Kyuubi? Now that is low. With renewed vigor he used shadow clone jutsu to surround the demon. It was actually pretty comical seeing Kyuubi's eyes widen and hold on the scroll tighten.

"Damn it Naruto!" He shouted looking half-nervously half-angrily at the clones surrounding him. He hunched over a little and with his hair standing up on end Kyuubi really did sort of resemble a fox on guard. Kind of sad since he was wearing Naruto's face.

But for the first time since this whole fiasco started, Naruto felt happy. His clones grinned determinedly and the original Naruto let out a laugh of triumph.

"Surrender now Kyuubi or we'll dogpile you!"

His moment of glory was sort of ruined when his clones started shouting agreements and threats and pleads to actually dogpile Kyuubi and Naruto had to tell them to shut up before someone heard them. But still Kyuubi dropped the scroll and the scowl on his face looked more like a pout at a plan gone wrong than a serious 'I-will-kill-you' expression.

Naruto happily took his time walking up to the demon and picking up the scroll at his feet. When he stood up they were chest to chest and Naruto smirked because he won that little battle. Kyuubi glared a little harder but the blond ninja turned around and walked back towards his table. Once he was out of range, his clones proceeded to jump on Kyuubi.

The THUMP, the '"OW! NARUTO!" and even his clones' laughter had Naruto smiling and laughing for real.

"Well I'm in a good mood so I'll let you sleep in here tonight. Allow me to get at least _some_ reading done and I'll even give you a blanket and pillow for you to curl up with _under_ my bed hehe," Naruto snickered. He heard Kyuubi grunt a little as the fox shoved his head out of the pile of clones.

"I'd rather sleep outside then enjoy your so-called hospitality!" He spat. But Naruto couldn't take it seriously. So he just shrugged and said,

"Whatever. But I am really hungry now so would you like to eat dirt too or do you want some real food?"

Kyuubi closed his eyes and looked away with a "humph!"

Still with a smile on his face Naruto decided to let him pout and went about making his ramen. It isn't long before he heard Kyuubi start whining.

"Hey! Get rid of your stupid clones this is uncomfortable!" Naruto heard Kyuubi struggle a bit and in response his clones let out a collective "naaaaah!" and Naruto chuckled again when he turned around to see the 'fight' that Kyuubi was obviously losing.

"I don't think so. They're having fun and I don't trust you to come and grab something again. So you are going to lie there, behave, and wait until I finish dinner and get some studying done. Then I'll lock all this stuff away so that you can't get them and _then_ I'll disperse the clones."

"Grrr you're as annoying as ever when you're happy! I want you upset again!"

"Too bad! Now shut up I need to pay attention to this scroll and this water. I'm going to actually gain some knowledge before tomorrow."

Kyuubi grumbled a little but otherwise didn't bother the original Naruto. Instead he spent his time snapping his teeth at the clones who kept poking him and messing up his already messed-up hair. The sight was kind of funny and Naruto could only wish he could dedicate more time to watching it.

But he needed to focus and there would be other times where he could do this. After all he still had all of his and Kyuubi's chakra so making the shadow clones isn't that big of a deal. But right, time to focus. The sooner he gets the basics of sealing down the sooner he can get to the real stuff.

He did want to follow through with his word and have Kyuubi back inside of him within the year. Even if he couldn't make a promise on it.

* * *

><p>And finished with another chapter!<p>

Yeah I don't know why the ending gave me so much trouble before. I mean for the past two days all these ideas kept coming to me and it was suddenly so easy! Boy writer's block is weird D:.

Anyways hehe my note at the top had a double meaning :P! And I told you the fighting would tone down soon! It will just take a while(if ever) for it to stop completely.

So if anyone's confused I'd like to say that most of the villagers that saw Kyuubi's chakra see it how Sakura sees it. Kyuubi started to get loose but Naruto took control and stopped him and then killed Pain. That's why they see him as a hero, because he did what he was supposed to do as a jinchuuriki and then killed Pain. Everyone else is like the boy, didn't see nuthin but heard the rumors.

Some things:

1) Naruto's grieving for his dead teachers is something that will pop up every now and then but I'll try not to over do it or something. Realistically, I think it would take him awhile to get over their deaths(especially in such a short time frame). And that will happen in this story, but Naruto's got so much going on that he's going to try and separate it all and do whatever is appropriate at the time.

2) Don't know if I said this but I wasn't super upset at Pain reviving everyone in the manga lol. I kind of just went with the flow. So no this isn't a response to that, it just fit in the story XD.

3) Naruto's feelings for Sakura and Hinata's feelings for Naruto(and to that extent Sakura's feelings) are still in the planning stages. Dunno yet how much of an impact they'll have on everything.

And...yeah I think that's it.

So about what's coming next: I have a small idea for the beginning of the next chapter, but obviously I have other things to update first.

Cheater Cheater and Little Terror I am aiming to update next. CC is practically done, just need my beta's opinion and then editing. And Little Terror still has a lot more writing to go but at this point screw my insecurities. I'll just write, write, and keep on writing :P. Beta can help there too obviously. And finally after that is Salvation and then Seas and Anything That Can Go Wrong. And then we start all over with October 10th again.

To get all of my stories updated in January would be amazing but I won't make any promises :X.

But yeah to end this long-ass note:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!(Can't believe it's been a whole year 0_0.)

May twenty-thirteen be in your favor :)!


	7. Chapter 7

Ta-da! Chapter 7!

Okay for those who have been looking at my profile and saw the 'OMG huge update!' note you may be wondering why the scroll bar looks so tiny...

This is not a single update. It's not even a double. It's a TRIPLE update :D! Surprise!

Yes this does mean 2 more chapters are on the way! The reason for the high word count is I added the total word count for each chapter. This particular one is over 4560 words and the next chapter will definitely be over 8100 words heh(for the record when I wrote over 9500 I hadn't started the chapter 9. Don't have a final word count for that yet).

So a few things to explain:

This was originally going to be a single update like normal. But then I got a GREAT idea for this chapter! However it involved going against my earlier statement where I said this would only be in Naruto's and Kyuubi's POV :/(that was naive anyway. When writing about drastic changes to the original story I realized I can't just have all the changes happen off screen!). So to make up for that change and the short word length and for the lack of any real KyuuNaru in this chapter, I was going to make this a double update.

Then I started get creative bursts for chapter 9 and realized I could totally write it out and have the whole chapter done quickly. So I bumped this up to a triple update :). I'm making GREAT progress! The only issue is I wrote an inconsistency between chapters 8 and 9 so I need to fix that.

I'm uploading this now because obviously it is done. Chapter 8 is going thru final read thru/editing/fixing that inconsistancy. If not tonight it should DEFINITELY be up tmrw. Like I said chapter 9 is making great progress however it needs much more written. So that will either be up tmrw night or Sat.(morning or night since I'll be working all day).

Sorry I meant to upload these all at once but I figured by now you all have been patient enough. I'm confident I can get these chaps done this weekend however so I decided to do it this way. I really hope knowing this has made the wait worth it :D? If not, does knowing that chapters 8 and 9 have some more KyuuNaru(ESPECIALLY CHAPTER 9) help :D?

_Anon Review reply:_

_stillaguest__: Yeah dude you're great :)! Aww it's okay just keep practicing!(I'm doing the same with Spanish haha). Oh thank you! I just need to discipline to sit down and write to meet a deadline haha. But it's something I do think about :)._

_Hehe it'll be pretty back and forth I can tell you that. Right now Naruto has the clear advantage but when Kyuubi gets REALLY determined and starts uping the craftyness well hah ;P. Thank you! I tell this to practically everyone but characters are always at the forefront of my mind! LOL I'll try not to make Kyuubi's parts boring! There's so much potential with him and I'm having fun exploring it. In fact in these three chapters I focus on a few particular areas :p. Glad you like the fighting because it will improve in baby steps. Tiny, baby steps lol. But I'll do my best to keep it varied and interesting. Cuz it is fun to write._

_D:! He just needs a reason, scissors, a style in mind, and for Kyuubi to sit still for a few minutes. The only thing possible right now is the style and the scissors and he ain't bothering with the other two lol. However the MIGHT just be a reason a few chapters from now to make Kyuubi presentable ;)._

_HERE IT IS :D! AND OMG THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH! Don't worry writing isn't terribly hard :D! Just need an imagination and a good word editor! You never know if you try it out you may be writing bestsellers haha. Thank you for your review!_

That is all. As stated earlier you will read the POVs of three other people in this chapter.

Please enjoy! Next two chapters will be here within a day(or two)!

* * *

><p>Kyuubi was <em>steaming<em>.

He felt so hot; he was surprised that the clones around him didn't spontaneously burst into flames. Though they did shift around uncomfortably and avoided contact with his skin, that wasn't nearly enough.

He needed to get out of this stupid 'dog pile'-he's not even a dog what nerve-and get one of those scrolls again. But his stupid vessel was just sitting there, all content and smug after taking another shower and finishing up his _third_ bowl of ramen and doing what he wants to do but not allowing Kyuubi that same privilege. He growled lowly.

"Hm? Are you hungry? You gonna behave?" Naruto asked eyeing him, wearing a grin only an evil, haughty guy would wear when they know they have the advantage. Kyuubi only growled louder. He almost tried to spit in his face with some chakra-enhanced saliva-chakra would make his spit _soar-_-but couldn't even prepare himself before one of Naruto's loud clones started speaking.

"No way boss he's hot! I mean that in a temperature way."

"It's making us uncomfortable hurry up!"

A clone that was sitting directly on his bottom shimmied a little. Another stretched and managed to 'bump' his fist against Kyuubi's shoulder. And still another let out a yawn and maneuvered a bit so that his elbow was digging right into the back of his leg.

He didn't have to take this.

Kyuubi opened his mouth and drew up some chakra. He was only going to send out a _tiny_ blast. Enough to knock Naruto out at least. But a clone noticed and slapped his hand over his mouth. Several other clones followed the first clone's lead much to Kyuubi's annoyance.

"Boooosss! He just tried to shoot you with a chakra roar thingy!"

_'Tailed Beast Bomb you idiot!'_ He corrected in his head. But when he tried to speak out loud his words were muffled against the clones' hands. Naruto turned towards them with a frown.

"Well since you're all getting so impatient I guess I'll wrap it up now. I think this amount of studying is good for one night anyway." And then he stretched reminding Kyuubi all too much of his own stagnant limbs and the fact that most of his muscles were falling asleep. Bastard.

"Hurry! His fangs are poking me!" A clone exclaimed

"Okay okay! Geez when did my clones get so whiny!?"

Naruto was lucky he couldn't understand Kyuubi's answer to that question.

"Let me just put these away first," he declared, making a few extra clones to help him carry the pile. Red eyes followed the blond and the extra clones he made as they went into the training room. He closed the door behind them and Kyuubi heard them rummage around a bit before the original Naruto emerged. He locked the door, turned to them and said,

"There. It's all locked up so there's no way you can get to it." And he finally dispersed the clones. Kyuubi immediately took the time to sit up and stretch. The feeling returning to his body was so slow he couldn't even stand up. Damn.

"If you're hungry, it's all on you bub because I'm not making you dinner again. I'm going to bed so eat what you want but if you break another one of my bowls again I will really make sure you eat dirt."

_'What a cute threat_,' Kyuubi thought rolling his eyes. As much as he wanted to tackle Naruto to floor and rip into him, Kyuubi was smart enough to know how little that would help in a long run. Naruto had that key with him, and he placed his freedom above petty revenge. For now.

Kyuubi didn't do anything as Naruto went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. When the ninja emerged in his pajamas all he said to him was,

"I've hidden the key in a place you won't ever look so you can forget about getting in there. Or else my clones will make sure you behave."

Kyuubi noticed that both of his vessel's fists were clenched but didn't think anything of it. He just sat on the floor and watched Naruto hop into his bed under the covers. The blond shifted around a little, adjusted his pants, and went to sleep without another word.

Finally. Silly decision from a silly boy; to go to sleep and leave Kyuubi unrestrained was just asking for trouble. But just to be safe, Kyuubi decided to wait until Naruto was _really_ asleep before acting. In the meantime, standing up was his new short-term goal.

Few minutes later and Naruto was sound asleep. Kyuubi was sure of it.

He bent over the sleeping boy and blew into his ear and when the blond didn't even stir and kept snoring away, Kyuubi immediately lept into action. He wasn't even the slightest bit tired after sleeping all day to make up for the lack of sleep he had the night before. So with his circadian rhythm out of whack and Naruto fast asleep there was nothing stopping him from breaking into the training room.

He jumped towards the bathroom door and quietly snuck in. He looked in predictable and unpredictable hiding places but the key was nowhere to be found for some odd reason. After spending a minute too long looking for that damn key, Kyuubi decided it would be quicker if he could just break into the room himself. He quietly crawled out of the bathroom and once he reached the training room door he began fiddling with the knob.

The hole in the wall was patched up with the remaining wood used to fix up the bathroom but the work was pretty sturdy and the last thing he wanted was to alert Naruto to what he was doing. It would take even him more than one night to absorb all the information he needed. Two nights at most. Maybe three.

So with busting the wall not an option, he could try and take the knob out. He elongated his fangs and bit at the knob. The metallic taste was disgusting but a small grievance. He just needed to find a freaking grip-_'Shit!' _Kyuubi winced and backed away when he bit too hard. He really loathed this body it felt too weak.

His teeth were fine but he did not want to break one of the few weapons he had so he tried something different. Now Kyuubi didn't know much about locks but he was sure if he messed with it enough it will come undone. So this time he popped out a claw and stuck it in the hole. There was a mess of mechanisms in there that Kyuubi couldn't even begin to understand. So he twisted and turned his finger, hoping something would go right. He tried to open the door every few seconds and with each failure he grew more and more frustrated and tried harder and faster.

Inevitably, something went wrong. He pulled his finger with a now broken claw out with a loud "GAAH!" It didn't hurt but it certainly shocked him since he had never broken a claw before.

'_Do they grow back!_?' He wondered looking at the jagged edge of his now short fingernail. And then he wondered how he could be so stupid. He freaking made a noise. But if he could just stay silent...

And that's when he heard Naruto mumble and sit up.

Shit.

"Stop trying to pick the lock you won't get in. And if you break my door Kyuubi..." The boy grumbled as he rubbed his eye and glared at him.

"Go back to sleep!" Kyuubi whispered harshly. He did NOT want to sleep with the clones! He would take sleeping outside over that!

"You're being too loud I can't."

Kyuubi bit his bottom lip and quickly came up with a different tactic. "No I'm not. You _are_ asleep."

"Stop it will ya? Just come back to bed. Don't make me get up and come over there," Naruto warned. Kyuubi let out a loud groan and gave an annoyed glance to blond glaring at him.

"Do I sleep above the bed or below?"

"Below of course," Naruto smirked. Kyuubi didn't move from where he was standing. It was probable that he could just keep talking and spin this in his favor. At the very least, he should stall for time and think of something.

"How much of that stuff do you already know?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The sealing. Surely you know at least a little already right? You travelled with a sealing master."

"Oh. Um...I'm not gonna tell you specifics. But you SHOULD be worried because I already have a little of STORAGE seals understood!"

How cute. He thinks Kyuubi should be terrified of that. And he looks so proud too. Kyuubi _could_ take the opportunity to burst his overinflated bubble, but he won't. Still stalling for time and Naruto won't go to sleep if he's angry.

"Very good. Then perhaps when you go out tomorrow you can use that knowledge to bring me back some stuff."

"Like what?"

Kyuubi had to think fast. He just said that, he honestly didn't know what he wanted.

"Like..."

"I'll only get you something if it's reasonable. I'd hate to spend unnecessary money on you, you know. I worked hard to earn this and I still hate you! Caring about you is the least of my concerns." And Kyuubi could just _hear_ the snooty little 'humph' as Naruto turned his nose up. Could his vessel make his hate any clearer? Kyuubi might actually forget they are fighting and think they are starting to get along.

"Do you have anything you need or not?!"

"_I'm thinking!" _Kyuubi shouted crossing his arms and scowling at the floor.

And he couldn't think of anything. He had a basic understanding by now of what his body needed but there wasn't anything he could think of that wasn't here. He could probably ask for something he could entertain himself with but why do that when he needed to spend the free hours he has getting used to this body more? And if he somehow gets into the training room tonight he could spend more time reading those scrolls.

"Ugh. I'm tired of waiting. Go to bed!"

He couldn't! Not yet and now he needed to think faster. Or not. The tension in the room was broken by the sound of Kyuubi's growling stomach. The nine tailed fox demon nearly sighed with relief but instead he grinned.

"Oh! Hear that. I'm hungry?"

"I'm not making you anything!" Naruto proclaimed. That wasn't any problem for Kyuubi. Now he could convince Naruto to go back to sleep by saying that he will make himself food and then go to sleep right after. Easy.

"That's fine I'll just whip myself up something quick and go to bed. You can go right on to sleep now," Kyuubi smiled.

"Oh no you don't! I don't like that smile! And now that I think about it you're not touching the stove without my supervision."

Stove? Yes that was the one thing he had yet to get a perfect handle on. He learned how to turn it on but has yet to understand what the heat settings are necessary for. Either way, he had a small hope that Naruto had _something_ that didn't require it. Now he somewhat regretted eating all the fruit Naruto had in the past few days while he was alone in the apartment.

"I won't use your stove because I don't feel like eating your slop-in-a-cup right now. I'll just eat whatever's in here."

He opened the cupboard despite Naruto's loud 'HEY!' and was severely disappointed to see nothing other than ramen.

"Argh! Don't you have anything in this dump besides ramen?! It's not even real food!" He growled. It provided sustenance and flavorful water but that was it as far as the fox demon was concerned. At this point Kyuubi had the strongest urge to eat some _real_ meat.

"It is SO real...food..."

"Not in my eyes! I guess I do have a request for you now. Bring back more meat. Raw preferably."

Naruto wasn't listening. He wasn't even looking at him. He was staring at his sheets and muttering, "Real...real..."

Now Naruto was freaking him out. Why did the blond keep repeating that word? Kyuubi shouldn't care-and well he didn't-but he was hungry and having difficulty figuring out how to get Naruto back to sleep. It looked like he wasn't going to sleep at all. Naruto's facial expression suddenly matched sheer horror as he uttered one sentence.

"Pain's not dead."

* * *

><p>"Here you go Nagato. This should help you feel better," Konan offered. But Nagato didn't even notice the plate of food despite the delicious smell. Konan frowned. She was worried about her friend because all he has been doing for the past few days was stare in front of him, thinking.<p>

She didn't know if he was thinking more about the total loss of Yahiko, something she had repeated to him numerous times that she did not blame him for. Or if he was thinking of the foreboding fact that Madara would be coming soon. His absence since Nagato's failure had her more worried and feeling at ill ease than anything else weighing on her mind. They had never failed to capture a jinchuuriki after at most the second try. The nine-tailed jinchuuriki was also someone who they had been going after for a while now. Failing once again to secure him...Madara might be at the end of his patience.

"Konan. Are you worried?"

She was surprised to hear him speak. But she only showed it for a split second before her expression became a cool mask of indifference. Still she spilled her fears and worries anyway. She could always trust Nagato.

"A little. He hasn't contacted us at all these past few days."

"Don't worry. He can't harm us. He still needs us."

"But your bloodline-"

"Is completely useless once I'm dead. We've taken the necessary precautions. He won't kill me as long as I have my rinnegan and he won't harm you for the same reason."

"I hope you're right."

Konan felt the disturbance too late.

"Well he might not be," a new, menacing voice said startling the two adults. They looked over to the entrance of Konan's paper mountain to see Madara walking in, his iconic orange mask blocking them from seeing his expression. Konan immediately went on guard. Madara stopped a few feet away and shook his finger in a disappointed manner.

"Tsk. Tsk. What a failure and a coward running away like you did."

"It would've been a failure anyway had I stayed."

"I still expected better from someone like you."

"Nagato made the best decision he could at the time. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it was a complete failure. We will now be better prepared next time." Konan didn't want to admit she let her anger show. But she did.

"Defend your crippled friend all you want Konan it won't change the fact that despite being the top two both of you failed where all of your underlings did. For people who claim to be God and God's Angel you both sure did a poor job living up to those titles when it really counted. You're no better than any other human that walked this Earth."

A little scowl appeared on Konan's face.

"And now from what I've heard, a new problem has arisen. It sounds like the demon was released from the jinchuuriki."

Konan paused. She wasn't able to directly watch Nagato's battle, but like everyone else in the area she felt the Kyuubi's chakra. And Nagato told her that Yahiko's body was destroyed by that chakra, but she wasn't sure what happened to it afterwards.

"The demon's chakra was released in a large amount. Enough that the jinchuuriki reached eight-tails of power. But after that for reasons I cannot explain, it was contained," The rinnegan user explained. Konan blinked curiously at him. Was that what happened?

"And why can't you explain it to me?"

"I had to focus on surviving so that this mission actually wouldn't be a complete failure. Sorry I couldn't see what was going on in his mind at the same time."

Konan brought her hand up to her mouth. Was that annoyed sarcasm she detected from him? It almost made her giggle since she hadn't heard that from him in such a long time. But such an action would better be done alone or at least once Madara leaves.

"A god would be able to do that. And a god wouldn't come up with excuses."

"Call them what you'd like it won't change anything that has happened," Nagato replied.

"I warned you not to take him lightly," Madara said lowly. Konan wished he would leave. "And you assured me that you would win because you never lost a battle-"

"This is only a setback in our plans," Konan interrupted. Nagato and she weren't perfect and no one knew that better than them. They didn't need to hear this..._thing_-she wasn't sure if he even was a man-telling them what they already knew.

"Our goal will be a little delayed but so what? You still have that little group Orochimaru created right? Why don't you go make sure they have captured the Eight Tails while Nagato and I plan how to move forward?" She formed it as a question, but Konan really hoped Madara read the subtle 'GET OUT!' Something about him just made her skin crawl. If it weren't for the massive help he was providing she'd make sure he was gone long before now. But even then she wished someone would come up with alternate route to peace. She wished she could come up with something herself.

Madara's one visible eye was trained on her and she met his stare with a stare of her own. Behind her, Nagato started coughing a little making her worried. Madara needed to leave so that she could tend to him properly.

"What exactly do you do Konan? Other than providing care." The masked man suddenly asked.

"What?" The blue-haired girl asked surprised.

"Just pondering."

That answer didn't make her feel better at all. She glanced back at Nagato and he was glaring harshly enough at their intruder to make him stop pondering a leave. At least, that's Konan's explanation for why the man suddenly turned around and started walking out. Before he completely left, he gave them some parting words.

"I don't trust you guys to come up with a good plan but I do need to check up on Sasuke and his friends. So try out your little planning skills, but be assured you won't be doing anything until I get back. And when I do, some new changes will be introduced."

And with that he was gone. Konan had a really bad feeling in her gut. Although she always trusted Nagato, the one thing she just couldn't bring up was her feelings for Madara. She knew how important this pursuit of peace was to him, their village, their people, and pretty much to the entire world. It was difficult to speak up knowing that they did need the man and everything he could provide on their side. He did give them generous assets after all and knowing he could take most of it away is what kept her quiet.

But this time? No more silence.

"I don't trust him. And I don't want to work with him anymore."

There. She said it.

Nagato didn't respond with anything other than, "I know."

He went silent and he was clearly thinking hard again. Konan just grabbed the uneaten plate of food and sat down on a rock and started to eat. Madara interrupted them, but she was sure Nagato would speak to her once he's finished thinking. After everything they've been through they have learned that striking out without discussing it first was a disastrous idea. She has firmly made up her mind on where Madara stood. Now she hoped that her oldest and closest friend was thinking of ways to get rid of him and still easily pursue their goal and not thinking of reasons to keep him around.

* * *

><p>There was yawning all around due to the late hour. Even Shikaku was fighting to stay awake. This was the most important meeting of his life and making sure a bad decision wasn't made was essential.<p>

"I'm tired," one of the councilmen said. "So let's just briefly summarize the facts one more time and we can come to a conclusion. Tsunade is in a coma and the threat was killed by your jinchuuriki. But the important thing is that your Hokage is _in a coma _and you have your best medics working on her so her chances of awakening are good, however that is not foreseeable in the immediate future correct Danzo?"

Danzo nodded and Shikaku discreetly scowled. He doubted the old man's words but unfortunately didn't have the time before now to see if he was really lying or not.

"So can we please just name Danzo as the candidate for the Sixth Hokage so I can go to bed?"

That was a very, very brief summation, but no one other than Shikaku wanted to argue.

"But-"

"Not another word Shikaku," another man commanded. "Danzo has brought up some excellent points yadda yadda. And I don't see who else can be nominated since Kakashi Hatake is dead so unless you would like to present a good and short argument for yourself?"

Shikaku looked like he wanted to argue some more but thought better of it. He sighed a defeated, "No."

The fire daiyamo, happy that this meeting could _finally_ come to a close, perked up and clapped happily. "Good! Then Danzo can be the sixth Hokage. Now let's go home everyone!" He exclaimed standing up. The other men followed his example, each one letting out tired yawns and mumbled, "Good job everyone" as they all filed out of the room.

Shikaku was the only one that was quiet. He had a bad feeling in his gut.

Obviously his feelings were the exact opposite of Danzo's, who was grinning like a man who owns everything.

* * *

><p>That went well. It went very well despite the long hours he had to waste arguing on his own behalf. But what was a few hours compared to the years he spent waiting for this moment? As extreme as he may be, Danzo liked to consider himself a patient guy.<p>

But patience was no longer needed. Now as a _candidate_ for the position of Hokage he had much to do and there were some things he needed to tackle immediately. Getting rid of the word 'candidate' is one priority. Underhanded killing of a fellow Konoha ninja, a Hokage at that, normally wasn't something he'd advocate. But some things are just a means to a peaceful end and if Tsunade was allowed back into power that peace would never be obtained. Perhaps sending in one of his ROOT members to sabotage Tsunade's medics would be a good course of action. Normally it wouldn't be something he rushed into doing. But the problem was that one little pink-haired medic that called herself Tsunade's apprentice was by the old lady's side constantly.

Sakura Haruno's medical prowess was better than he had initially expected without the old nurse Shizune around. There could be a good chance that she will have Tsunade awake before he could be sworn in. He needed to act quickly and he needed to find a way around that girl. She left to use the bathroom but otherwise slept, ate, and studied next to his weak predecessor's bed. And she thoroughly checked everything that was given to Tsunade. It would be extremely difficult get by her, but not impossible. But he can do some deeper planning for that problem later and focus on more solvable problems at hand.

The Uchiha of course needed to be dealt it. Itachi was definitely gone by this point, not 'hiding' as some of his members suggested. So that meant the littlest of the worthless clan was essentially a roaming, easy target. Sasuke Uchiha has given Danzo all he needed to be declared a missing-nin who needed to be killed on sight. Easy enough, he just needed to do the paperwork as soon as he got to _his_ office. Then he'll wash his hands of the Uchiha Clan forever. '_For the most part_,' he thought rubbing his covered arm.

With that problem solved and out of the way, Danzo thought of his newest and most confusing problem, the jinchuuriki. Ever since he was born the jinchuuriki has been a blip on Danzo's radar. Problem was, despite how weak Sarutobi and his student were as Hokage, they admittedly did a top notch job at protecting Naruto from him. He couldn't even meet the boy while they sat in power and all of his attempts at ROOT surveillance quickly fell through when both Hokages made orders for them to stay away and threatened consequences if they didn't. Although he would like to deal with the Uchiha and Haruno as soon as possible, Danzo couldn't lie that the jinchuuriki held his immediate interest as well. He could finally force him to stay in the village.

He thankfully didn't have to worry about getting him to like Konoha, but the jinchuuriki was incredibly passionate; too much for his own good. And perhaps, he was too much for the village. Danzo worried about his loyalty. The steps the jinchuuriki would take to make sure things went 'his way' had him worried. If he didn't want the Uchiha dead, and in fact Danzo suspects he had something to do with the fact that the Uchiha wasn't labeled a missing-nin in the first place, then he could become an obstacle. Sai gave him enough information that he suspects immediate conditioning may be in order. He also wanted to have the jinchuuriki under his watch because he was curious about how he defeated the most recent threat to Konoha and handled the Kyuubi after it looked like it had escaped.

He was especially curious about why one of his ROOT members caught him checking out a large amount of sealing material from the underground library.

He needed to keep a close eye on that one and the sooner the better. Perhaps he should send a notice before he leaves for the Kage Summit meeting.

Danzo's thinking was interrupted by a yawn. He realized then that he was spending more time on these problems than needed at the moment, especially after such a long night. His ROOT members told him that it would take a few more hours before they returned to Konoha. He should get some sleep now and give these problems more thought once he woke up.

As he made himself comfortable, he could only think of one last thing before he fell asleep.

It was incredibly funny how his three biggest problems all involved members of that damned Team 7.

* * *

><p>And there is 13 of the triple update :).

LOL Kyuubi-failures are gonna be a blast to think of I can tell.

Gonna mix it up and tell you my least favorite part to write. Hands down the Nagato and Konan portion. Not because it was hard or anything. But because I needed to look thru a 630 chapter manga to try and find one stupid little convo between Pain and Madara. I was looking for proof that they didn't trust each other and boy was that a pain. But there it is. What 'changes' do you think Madara will introduce =O?

Kay I don't think there's anything else needed for this end A/N. So with that I hope you enjoyed this chapter and like my surprise :D! Let me know what you think!


	8. Chapter 8

Here is 2 of 3! LOL if only I could update this quickly on a normal basis :P.

I forgot to say at the end of the last chapter something about Danzo. So I feel like he had a lot of potential as a villain particularly as a Team 7 villain since he technically had a reason to fight them all. I was really sad when all he did was fight Sasuke before kicking the bucket so he will be doing things a little bit differently here hehe.

Okay so this is over 8370 words which is the longest thus far :D! Still don't have a final word count for chapter 9 unfortunately but I'll be working on that for most of the day.

Please enjoy!

* * *

><p>Naruto was stressing out and wanted to pull his hair out. It wasn't even 4AM yet.<p>

He couldn't go back to sleep after his realization, he just couldn't. Knowing that Pain was actually still alive and out there, totally able to take on another body had him almost hyperventilating.

"This isn't good this isn't good this isn't good-" he kept repeating. He was so out of it, he hardly noticed Kyuubi watching him rocking back and forth on his bed and making unwelcome comments.

"This is funny."

"This is horrible! I can't have Pain still alive AND you running around! How could I have forgotten Jiraiya's words so easily like this? Did you save the chakra rods? Please tell me you saved the chakra rods!" He asked turning towards the demon who was sitting in the dining table chair, slouching over the back of it.

"I don't remember."

"Shit! We have to do something! We have to find him!" Naruto leaned forward and started drumming his fingers on his sheets. He tried to come up with ideas but it was hard because he didn't want to get anyone else involved. It should be him who goes after Pain and him alone.

"'We'? Naruto you do realize you included me in this right?"

"We have to get him before he attacks again! He could try and destroy Konoha again and this time..."

"Aww cheer up Naruto. This time you'll be conscious enough to stop him."

Kyuubi was grinning and Naruto wasn't. He knew what the fox demon was getting at and he didn't like it. He hated it. Didn't want to believe it. But he had no choice. His mind was already so frazzled he could hardly think straight, but he knew deep down even if he could be thinking straight at this moment, he would come to the exact same conclusion.

He needed Kyuubi's help.

Now. How to ask the fox without losing his dignity?

"You shouldn't be smiling. Now that he knows you are out, he's going to take even more precautions. Pain's _going_ to get a stronger body and he's going to try and kill the both of us."

"I can get away fast enough. I'll take you with me if I have to."

"I won't abandon Konoha! That's not even an option on the table!" Naruto shouted leaning towards Kyuubi.

"Fine, fine alright. Just stop yelling. So what do you propose then? Guarantee it'll be stupid."

Naruto leaned back and his eyebrows furrowed at the insult but he swallowed his scathing reply because there were more important things to handle right now.

"We need to fix this Kyuubi. We need to find him and kill him for real this time. He's too much of a threat to leave alone!" Kyuubi claimed to have a good sense of smell so maybe he can sniff him out! Or maybe since he used to be a being made of chakra, he can sense him out?

"We we we! Don't you mean _you_? Aren't I supposed to stay in here until you seal me again?"

Naruto flinched and bit his bottom lip. He was doing pretty good arguing until now. Of course that little demand needed to change since he needed the monster's help. And if they could just sneak out, find Pain, kill him, and sneak back in it won't be so bad will it?

"Things have changed now," he finally mumbled.

"No. Things are exactly the same as they were before. You just remembered something your fragile mind has forgotten," Kyuubi pointed out standing up. "IF this guy is supposed to kill us then why hasn't he come back yet? It's been a few days if I recall."

"He's obviously recovering from the damage we did to him."

"The damage **I** did to him."

"Don't give yourself all the credit! I destroyed FIVE of his bodies before you even showed up so shove it!"

"...Not impressed. They were obviously weaker bodies. I did the most damage because I destroyed the main threat," Kyuubi said turning away. Naruto rolled his eyes at Kyuubi's pout and obvious attempt at saving his ego.

"We actually need to work together this time Kyuubi."

"There you go again changing your mind. You don't want me and then you need me. You hate me and wish I would disappear but oh! Help! Some clown wants us dead! You are so FICKLE Naruto! It drives me mad!"

"So I want to stop some guy who wants me dead and you in his clutches and you see something wrong with working together? I'm willing to BREIFLY let bygones be bygones here!"

"And what do I get in return?"

"Not being captured by the Akatsuki! Duh!" Naruto exclaimed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He felt insulted when Kyuubi shook his head like _he_ was the idiot.

"You don't get it. I'm not some tool you can use to just save your village. Why should I lend you my aid in protecting a village I don't even like when I can easily outrun the Akatsuki and avoid them until all the members die of old age if I wish? If anything happens to this village you will be the guilty one not me."

This is _exactly_ why he almost never visited the fox while he was still inside of him; or at least, it proved why doing so was never a good idea. Insults aside, talking to this guy was like talking in circles. He wished there was some part of the fox's mind that actually had morals. But that took wishful thinking to a whole new level.

"You really think you can outrun them forever like that? You're **not** invincible Kyuubi. You haven't been for a very long time and I don't think you ever were!"

Kyuubi growled at him. Flexing his claws and-Naruto just now realized one of them was broken.

"And you broke one of your claws by not listening to me and trying to break into the training room obviously! Know what? Go ahead and try to attack me! It's not like I'm already in the worst situation I could possibly be in!" He said turning away. A little overdramatic? Maybe. He wouldn't really let Kyuubi get the best of him, but knowing just how hard it would be to actually get the monster fox to even listen to him made him mad.

"'Worst'?" Kyuubi repeated.

"There CAN'T be anything worse than you and Pain running around."

Naruto noticed out of the corner of his eye Kyuubi make a move like he wanted to speak but changed his mind.

"What? What is it? And actually tell me this time Kyuubi."

"Just saying there might be one more guy. But I'll handle him personally Naruto so don't fret."

"Tch," Naruto scoffed. "If you hate him then he must be a good guy."

Naruto nearly jumped in surprise when Kyuubi burst into what was a mix between bitter and sardonic laughter.

"Trust me, you would NOT be saying that if you knew who he was you little idiot." For some reason, Naruto could pick up traces of anger coming from the fox. But he decided to dwell on that later as he needed to focus on two little words and use them to his advantage.

"Trust you?" The blond grinned a grin that could easily be seen on Kyuubi's own face. He rolled onto his knees, facing the red-head. "I can do that if you earn it. And you can earn it by helping me with Pain."

"Why would you even think that your trust would be good enough to persuade me? You must be the biggest idiot in the world to think I care," he mocked. It annoyed Naruto a little, okay immensely, to have his words thrown his face like that. But that annoyance only motivated him further. Namely it motivated him to rely on a more deceptive tactic.

"But if you have my trust, won't that mean I'll be less likely to seal you?"

That stopped Kyuubi dead in his tracks. He was silent for a few seconds before his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Won't you doubt everything I do now that you've given me that idea? I would never be able to earn your trust."

"If I trust you I won't seal you," Naruto stated. To his relief Kyuubi seemed to be seriously considering it. He bit his bottom lip and looked off to the side, clearly weighing all the pros and cons to accepting such a proposition. Naruto hoped he would accept it and hoped he would accept it soon because if this didn't work he didn't know what else to do. Short of letting Pain beat the hell out of him, nothing he can do can force Kyuubi to fight.

"...You put me in quite the predicament here Naruto. What makes you so confident that I can't find a way out of this myself?"

Naruto hesitated before saying, "Because if you really had any idea of what to do you should've done something by now."

"Well if _someone_ would just let me look at the sealing stuff and do a little research..."

"I-well-I...ugh. Can we PLEASE just get rid of this one big threat together and talk about the sealing _afterwards_?"

"I don't know what to do now. You really think I want your trust in exchange for my freedom? That's pretty flimsy there Naruto. Even if you do promise how can I know you would ever trust me? You might just nitpick everything I do and believe I would betray you at every corner!" Kyuubi pointed at him accusingly as if he was convinced that was exactly what Naruto would do. At this point in time, Naruto couldn't exactly argue the truthfulness of that accusation. But the key words were 'at this point in time'.

"I may think that now, but you never know. People can change."

"Humans don't just _change_ when it comes to me Naruto. That's too naive even for you."

"If you give them time or a reason they could."

"Yeah right."

"Kyuubi look at what I'm doing right now. I'm offering you a chance. Did you think I would be doing this a few days ago?" That seemed to be the right thing to say for Kyuubi lost that derisive smirk and looked to be surprised. It was true though. Even Naruto couldn't have ever imagined consciously deciding not to seal Kyuubi. He still couldn't imagine it. But this sudden realization was wearing on him and he felt pretty desperate. Even if his promise never came to be he at least needed to have Kyuubi on his side for this.

"Promise me then."

"Hm?"

"Just promise me that if I gain your trust you won't seal me again. And above that you will stop anyone else you know from trying to seal me. You will say the words "I trust you" to my face as well."

He could do that. That promise was simple and slightly vague, but concrete enough that he could get away with preparing to seal Kyuubi should he not gain his trust by the time the threat of Pain is dealt with. Stopping others from sealing Kyuubi was a given. Other than Konoha and Suna he trusted no one else with the Nine Tailed Demon Fox. Though promising to stop _Konoha_ from resealing him...it's not like he's promising to succeed. Just to try.

"Fine. I promise that if you gain my trust by the time Pain is really dead, I won't put you back inside of me. I'll also try and stop others from resealing you-"

"Your hardest. You'll try your hardest."

Naruto looked a little annoyed at being interrupted but continued anyway. "I'll try my hardest. And I never go back on my word."

Kyuubi stared at him for a long time, as if making sure he was being as sincere as possible. Naruto put on his best poker face and tried his hardest not to flinch or look away from Kyuubi's stare. Finally, Kyuubi looked satisfied and nodded.

"Alright then."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from sighing in relief. But he perked up again as there was still some things that needed to be address. Namely, letting Kyuubi know where they stand.

"So as of this moment I trust you about as well as I trust expired milk. Just because we made this deal doesn't mean you get privileges now like access to my sealing scrolls!"

"Why can't you just not worry about what I'm going to do? Focus on your end of things I certainly won't worry about it." Naruto got the feeling Kyuubi already understood that he was still going to research the seal. But the demon didn't say anything about it so Naruto didn't either. Except,

"I _have_ to worry about what you're doing if I'm gonna trust you! I'm gonna be watching you like a watchdog expect that!"

"So are you going to be watching me _now_ instead of figuring out how we get out of here and find Pain?"

"R-Right well I'll get on that! Leave getting out of the village to me. I need you to find Pain for me. You can sense him out right?"

"In this weak body? It'll be more of a challenge than I'm used to."

"What's wrong with your body anyway?" Naruto wasn't entirely sure how Kyuubi came to be that way. It never occurred to him to ask before. But now was a good enough opening to express his curiosity.

"I copied it from you. It's basically your body structure with my superior DNA and mind in it. That's what's wrong."

"I'm not gonna be able to trust you with comments like that!" Naruto shouted pointing a finger at Kyuubi. The demon rolled his eyes but with a small smile.

"Mr. Sensitive. Just let me get it all out first. I'll stop insulting you once the benefits outweigh the satisfaction of riling you up. You're such an easy target Naruto," he teased. Naruto scowled, not finding it at all funny.

"So do we just leave or what? I'll be helpful and carry the seal stuff."

"Shut up! The only thing you'll be carrying is your fat head," '_if that if you keep pissing me off_.' "And no we can't just leave. We have to..." Naruto trailed off as he realized something.

Who was he going to talk to?

Tsunade was the only person who would let him leave without asking too many questions. The people in charge now were a bunch of old crones who he never talked to and gave him funny feelings anyway. Besides that, they had all left earlier to go to some super serious meeting out of the village or something. He didn't even know when they'd be back.

_'Not to mention'_, he thought biting his thumb nail, '_it's gonna take some serious special permission to go on a mission right now_.' With so many dead including many of their greats like-no, no, no, not now-and so many injured and out of commission, the village needed all of their manpower to help rebuild and protect during this incredibly vulnerable period. He can't just come up with any lie to get out of here.

"You're thinking awfully hard about this. Just run off it's not like they'll notice you're gone."

Naruto glared at Kyuubi for that. He was still trying to cut deep with his words.

"Stop it." He growled.

"You're straining your little brain too much in one night. Get a few hours of rest and when you wake up you'll be of semi-functioning state."

Why did it feel like since they've made the deal Kyuubi hasn't gotten any better with his insulting? Was he even taking it seriously? Naruto's trust wasn't something he could just earn by cooperating and killing Pain. And it certainly isn't something he could earn in five minutes. If he was seriously planning on prolonging his turnaround, then maybe Naruto should shorten the deadline. If that's how he's gonna be about it then why should Naruto grant him some leniency?

"Alright let me put it in a 'nice' way. You are too exhausted right now to think straight. Go to sleep and think of an idea when you wake up and have eaten something."

He has been told that sleep and food always makes you think clearer. But he almost didn't want to go to bed just because Kyuubi told him to. Besides how could he when there was so much to think about? But his internal thoughts weren't heard by the fox demon who had walked over and started pushing him into a laying position.

"Hey!" He exclaimed fighting back.

"It's like you said, we can't just leave. So you need to get your rest and charge your brain up. You know it needs it."

Kyuubi wasn't supposed to be this strong was he? He actually got Naruto lying on his back and before the blond could sit up, Kyuubi threw the covers over him.

"Kyuubi-!"

"If it makes you sleep easier I'll use this time to try and locate Pain. I'll probably need a few hours to do it anyway," he grumbled before turning around and sitting on the floor. He got into a meditative position and said one last thing.

"Once I find him I'll get some sleep myself so that we'll both be ready when you wake up."

"Wait I don't think-" But Naruto stopped when Kyuubi let out a sigh and it was obvious he wasn't being heard. He also felt Kyuubi's chakra spike and fluctuate so it was clear he really was trying to search Pain out.

...Maybe the demon had a point. Maybe he could use some rest and later on he'll wake up with a better plan in mind. So with that he curled up under the covers and fell asleep immediately.

* * *

><p>He woke up to someone touching him.<p>

He was sitting up for some reason. Two hands grabbed the corners of his mouth and were pulling them up into a smile and down into a frown over and over again. At first Naruto was still in sleep's hold so he only noticed the sensation but couldn't quite think of what to do about it. Then he woke up fully and once he realized Kyuubi was playing with his mouth he got angry.

"Wha da hell?!" He garbled shoving Kyuubi away from him. He rubbed at his sore mouth frantically.

"Afternoon," Kyuubi smiled. "There's some ramen on the table for you."

At that Naruto grinned a little. Finally, now it starts. Kyuubi's gonna try and butter up to him just like he expected. But he won't make it easy. Far from it. "Heh. You think a little bowl of ramen is enough to make up for what you've done to me?"

"No. I didn't make it for what I've done to you and what I will do to you. I made it for myself but decided not to eat it so you can have it. I would like to reiterate that you should buy a larger variety of food before we leave. Preferably raw meats," the demon replied. Well that was shocking. Here he was expecting Kyuubi to completely spin this in his favor and he got some bland truth?

"Why didn't you just lie and say you made it for me?"

"Would you have believed me? Or at least not be suspicious of my motives?"

Well he had him there.

"What time is it?"

"Judging by the sun it is around 2pm."

"The sun is out?" Naruto asked looking out his window. Indeed the sun was shining through a few clouds. It was a beautiful sight to see after nothing but a grey, sun-less sky for the past few days. Just feeling the sunshine through his window had Naruto's spirits lifting up even more now. He had a feeling things were going get better.

Naruto paused and blinked. He guessed the start of it was Kyuubi acting all calm. The fox demon went and sat down in the other chair, balancing it on its back to legs and started looking at his claws. It felt like a normal conversation could possibly happen. They had things to do yes but he wondered.

"Hey why didn't you look at the clock and tell me the time?"

"What the hell makes you think I know how to read one of those things? I have no use for it so why should I bother?"

"Just asking..." Naruto mumbled. So much for that. Kyuubi made no reply and just went back to admiring his claws. It looked like he was trying to make the broken one come back quicker.

Naruto was a little weirded out. He still had an arrogant tone but he's been so placid so far. Not an insult to him yet. In spite of himself, Naruto felt a little suspicious. Maybe Kyuubi was taking that trust deal seriously, but until he proves it Naruto can only suspect that his sudden calmness is only to make Naruto put his guard down.

Well joke's on him. There's no way Naruto's guard is going down any time soon. He climbed off of his bed and grabbed a change of clothes so that he could immediately change into after he's eaten and then just go. Naruto then went to go eat his ramen. After all, half of the day was gone and they needed to get moving. Whether the people in charge are back or not he can still go over to the official place and ask for a mission. _Someone_ there should be able to give him one. He'll think up a lie on the way there.

"I'm just going to eat this ramen and then I'll go get our mission approved. We'll leave today. And while I'm gone don't do anything stupid! Just sit in here like a good boy and wait for me to come back."

"You give me too little credit. I'm much more responsible than you think."

"Right," Naruto said sarcastically before slurping on some noodles. They were warm and delicious as they should be. Kyuubi admittedly didn't do that bad of a job.

"I mean it. I even organized all the sealing stuff for you since I figured out ahead of time you would want pack it all."

Naruto spat out all the noodles in mouth.

"WHAT?!" _'Oh God I don't feel the key!'_

But Kyuubi had to be bluffing. He had to! Maybe it fell out when he stood up? But a glance at the floor behind him terminated that theory. Naruto shot up, knocking his chair over, and raced over to his training room. To his absolute horror the door was unlocked. He slowly opened it and his fears were confirmed when all of the books and scrolls weren't in the positions he put them in last night, but arranged neatly in the middle of the room; ready to be stuffed into backpacks.

Naruto didn't know what was worse. The fact that Kyuubi got into the sealing stuff. Or how Kyuubi must've gotten the key.

"Looking for this?" Naruto slowly turned his head to the side to see Kyuubi balancing the small, golden, slightly rusted key on his finger tip. The demon was smirking. Naruto's expression was that of a zombie. A zombie suffering from a painful illness. A painful illness where one of the side effects was horrifying embarrassment.

"Good hiding place but better luck next time."

"The key...was in...my boxers Kyuubi..." He had stuffed it in his underwear after he got under the covers. He had thought Kyuubi wouldn't want to touch him there at all after the bathing disaster.

"Yes and it took me a while to figure that out. Luckily I was quiet, you slept like the dead."

Was this the reason he was so calm? Forget the delicious ramen, forget the idea of casual conversation, and forget the sun. Naruto was mad.

"Why the HELL would you put your hand DOWN my boxers?! Do you know how SICK that is?!"

"Someone touching you there is sick?"

"NO! YOU touching me there WITHOUT my permission is the sickest thing ever! You violated me you bastard!"

"So if you gave me permission-"

"I would NEVER do that! I don't know who's trust you are hoping to gain now!"

"Calm down and stop shouting! All I wanted was the damn key I gave no thought to you whatsoever." Kyuubi stopped smirking and it appeared he was done playing around.

"You-"

"I told you before; you are talking to someone who spent a better part of his life naked. Nudity doesn't bother or even excite me. And you can be certain that _your_ nudity is something that puts me off entirely. Now quit fighting with me and go get our mission or whatever so we can leave!"

Naruto didn't answer. He turned around and stomped into his bathroom and grabbed the first thing he could pick up; a large, nearly full bottle of lotion. He then threw it as hard as he could at Kyuubi, immensely satisfied when it beamed him right in the forehead and the monster demon fell back with a shout of pain.

"HAH!" Naruto shouted before slamming the bathroom door. Okay, okay he was seriously rattled by this. Maybe more than he should've been. Kyuubi didn't have any perverted intentions he just wanted the key.

But...a _guy_ touched him down there. Intentionally. And he touched the skin.

This wasn't what happened when they took a bath together. Then they were fighting. Now a _man_ legitimately reached down his pants and boxers and _felt everything_! If he closed his eyes he could imagine...

Ewewewewewewewew! No! Naruto shook his head. Sai was terrible enough with his comments and looking that one time but Kyuubi just up and touched him! Not even a GIRL has touched him there before and believe him, Jiraiya _**tried**_!

_'Kyuubi ruined it just like how he ruins everything_,' Naruto thought with a pout as he quickly got dressed. He had his firsts all pictured and planned out and Kyuubi ruined one of them. It bad enough that his first kiss was stolen by one guy but now his first handjob was taken by another one? He wasn't like _that_ so why did it happen to him?! Was there some kind of memory-erasing jutsu? If only there was a time travel one!

Once he finished dressing he walked out and made sure to look as angry as possible. Sexuality concerns aside, Kyuubi did breach his trust in a massive way. Even if he doesn't understand what he did what with having no concerns about nudity and all...well, he should understand. Naruto will admit some of his anger burned off when he saw Kyuubi still rubbing his head where he was hit. But right now he wanted to just go.

First he stomped over to the demon and snatched the key out of his hand. After relocking the training room he firmly planted the key in his pocket.

"I'm locking this again and I'm taking the key with me so you can't go in anymore."

Naruto didn't need to say anything else so he walked out of his apartment. But he did slam the door way harder than he meant to when Kyuubi shouted, "Bring back some meat!" so calmly and casually. Like he didn't just touch Naruto in a sexual way and Naruto wasn't supremely angry at him for it.

Bastard.

* * *

><p>Naruto felt intimidated as he walked into the furnished office.<p>

Danzo was sitting behind the Hokage's desk, expression blank, hands clasped in his lap, and two ROOT ANBU members on each side. He looked like a mob boss. He looked stiff and cold. He looked like he didn't belong in the Old Man Hokage's and Granny Tsunade's chair. But above all, he looked like he lacked the warmth and compassion given off by the pervious Hokages. This room where Naruto once felt comfortable enough to shout whatever was on his mind felt empty and yet suffocating. He needed to say what he needed to say and get out.

"The Jinchuuriki," Danzo greeted. Naruto felt his skin crawl. And not just because he addressed him by what he is instead of his name.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki," he had to say. He would never allow anyone to see him for what he is instead of who. Danzo didn't look impressed at all by his statement.

"That is unbecoming of one of my soldiers. Correcting your Sixth Hokage is disrespectful. I will be giving you a discipline training program to go through for sure now."

Hearing that man refer to himself as Hokage made Naruto want to shout that he wasn't a Hokage and he would never be one because he didn't act like one. He felt the strongest urge for Tsunade to wake up and take her position back. Maybe before heading back to his apartment he could stop by the medical tents and check up on her and Sakura. Surely some progress has been made by now right?  
>"I didn't come here to receive training. I-"<p>

"I wasn't giving you a choice. As the greatest weapon of the village it is crucial you understand how to behave and act when around all of your superiors."

All of his superiors? What the hell was this guy saying?! Less than two minutes with the guy and Naruto already felt less than human in his presence! Like he saw him as no more than a tool that is supposed to agree and obey everything that came out of his mouth! It wasn't a good feeling. Naruto didn't like this guy at all.

"With all due respect _**sir**_, I'm not looking for training! I'm looking for permission to leave on a mission to benefit the village!"

"You don't understand that no ninja is allowed to leave this village while we are recovering? Are you abandoning us Jinchuuriki?"

"What? No! Of course not! I said I need you to allow me to go on a mission that will _benefit the village_! It's a really important mission and I need to leave right away!"

"And you really expected me to let you leave without even knowing what this mission is? I haven't heard anything of it and I'm the Hokage. Are you playing games with me Jinchuuriki? Are you even aware that I was against you going on out-of-village missions in the first place? I should let you walk out of this office and straight into my training program for your lack of insight and clear disregard."

This guy was almost as bad as Kyuubi which was saying something. Not judging by insult content, but the way he's being spoken to. Danzo was trying to make him feel like the worst and most idiotic tool on the planet. Naruto could tell. What kind of Hokage, temporary or not, does that?

"I would've told you what it is had you asked. And you need to let me go it's important!" He was lying sort of because he hasn't thought of a lie yet. But he can make Danzo feel stupid too.

Danzo let out a sigh. "Ordering me around...my first few hours in office and already you talk as if you have the ultimate authority."

"I'm not-"

"My predecessors were too soft on you. You've become spoiled, you feel entitled to things you are not."

"If you would just listen-"

"And worst of all you can't even shut your trap. Don't you how that is the problem that caused all of this?"

He won't even let him speak! And what the hell was he talking about? How did his words cause this? He knew Pain attacked Konoha for him but it's not like he told the guy to attack Konoha if he wanted a fight. Pain attacking Konoha was _Pain's_ fault.

"And I'm not just talking about the recent attack."

That made Naruto freeze.

"Konoha is seen as _weak_ Jinchuuriki. You of all people believe that the Hokage should bend over and give in to your whim and you are certainly not the only one that feels that way. At the same time you give unlimited chances to those who do not deserve it. How many chances did you give Pain to redeem himself before you finally did your job and killed him?"

"I didn't-"

"You did. I know you did. You gave him one chance by being late to save us causing many deaths and still counting. You gave him another by not disposing of him mere minutes after your arrival despite claiming to have the power to do so. And what's worse, you even gave that beast of yours a chance by allowing him moments of freedom. I shouldn't even have to remind you of a certain other who gets innumerable chances despite what he's done."

But he didn't...He tried...He did _more _than...And that was...Sasuke hasn't...He was _twisting_ everything up! This guy was actually trying to make him feel horrible about himself over things he had no control over or were justified!

Well sorry for him it wasn't going to work. As bad as he is, Kyuubi's comments got to him first and he already started preparing mental defenses against striking, deep insults against him. The fact that he didn't even know who this Danzo guy was made it a bit easier to swallow.

"Unreliable. That's what kind of Jinchuuriki you are to me. And unless you can prove you are reliable then your permission to leave the village will be denied over and over and over while I'm in charge."

"You..." The fact that these comments were making him feel more angry than defeated also helped.

"Your first step at proving yourself to me is to take part in a now mandatory training program. Right now. Fu-"

"NO!" Naruto shouted. He couldn't do that not just because he needed to go take care of Pain. But also because he couldn't leave Kyuubi alone. No telling what that fox would do if he didn't come back.

"Please just give me the mission! I can't focus on anything else!"

"...Can't focus on anything else you say?"

He didn't know why those words got to that man but he'll take it. Naruto shook his head slowly.

"What of rebuilding the village? Did you help?"

Naruto nodded.

"And any protective duty?"

"This will be my protective duty. I heard of a threat on the horizon and I want to take care of it myself as I am the only one who can." That was a pretty risky 'lie'. But he couldn't think of anything else. But his 'hero' status will come in handy. A threat so strong only he could take it on? Danzo has to let him leave for that.

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes."

"Then tell me the truth on another matter. Why did you check out sealing scrolls from the library?"

Naruto briefly looked stunned. It wasn't like he was trying to be discrete then or anything, other than trying to hide the titles. He didn't think he would really have an issue with someone other Sakura knowing but he was just proved wrong. He just now decided that Danzo was the absolute last person he wanted to be curious about this. He tried to stay calm.

"I uh didn't know anyone was watching me. But I'm working on developing a jutsu. When I was with Jiraiya he taught me all the benefits of sealing so I wanted to create something using it. But I'll be putting it on hiatus for this mission." There. His first real lie.

"So you are ignoring the rebuilding efforts and your new jutsu just to do this mission."

Naruto nearly cringed. He wasn't ignoring anything.

"The safety of my home is top priority for me."

"A threat so large should've been brought to my attention sooner. And you say only _you_ can handle it?"

"The Akatsuki isn't dead and gone just because Pain is," Naruto blurted out. "I can find the rest of them and get rid of them. For Konoha. And I'll do it myself because Konoha needs all of its available ninja you know. If I can handle Pain and I can handle his lackeys."

Saying that reminded him that Pain actually might have more underlings with him. Oh boy. Good thing he got Kyuubi on board with this.

"I don't see why I don't just put you in my program first and then send you out on this mission."

"Are you really willing to risk bringing more harm to Konoha?!" Naruto shouted. The old man and Tsunade would never do that. They'd trust him to go fight the Akatsuki he knows they would. "And you said it yourself that I'm too spoiled. So if you don't give me my way I will fight and fight and fight to get out because I NEED to go on this mission! It's important."

Briefly, Danzo looked the angriest Naruto has ever seen him. That wasn't saying much since Naruto had never actually met this guy before now. But it had an impact that's for sure. Naruto was actually concerned he'd send those two ANBU next to him to restrain him. But instead he 'calmed down' if that was the right way to describe it. It still felt like he was incredibly angry, but more tranquil about it. Not that that made Naruto feel better.

"So you will focus on _nothing else_ during this mission."

"Nothing else."

Danzo sat quietly for a long time before he smiled in a way that had Naruto wanting him to frown again.

"Alright then. You may go on your mission but I warn you. You will not receive pay as we have no money to give. I also have a few orders to give. You will keep to your word and stay focused on this mission. You will bring back to me the heads of all the Akatsuki members you kill and you will kill _**all**_ of them. And you will report to me your progress continually. In one week I expect you to tell me how long you will be and I will give you a deadline if needed. If you fail at any one of those things there will be consequences for you."

"Understood." These were standard procedures and yet Naruto had a hard time wanting to agree with them. He wished Danzo would get off of his back.

"You are dismissed then."

Naruto didn't give the guy any of the respect he would've shown Tsunade or Sarutobi. He didn't deserve it and Naruto didn't care if that made him angry or what not. Instead Naruto turned to walk out, incredibly mad despite getting what he wished for. Danzo needed to get out and stay out because he was not fit to lead Konoha. He showed no signs of being capable for the job. None.

But in the back of his mind he wondered. If no one knew the truth and everyone thought he was the hero of the village, then why was Danzo acting this way towards him?

Did that mean that no matter what he did, people would always only see him as Kyuubi's container and hate him for it?

Were they only being nice to him for reasons unrelated to respect?

He was almost out the door, but Danzo called out to him.

"Oh one more thing."

What now? Naruto faced him, wanting nothing more than to just leave. Stupid Danzo.

"Once you finish this mission I want you to report immediately to my office and stay a while."

Naruto got a feeling that there was something really sinister about Danzo and his intentions.

"I ask for nothing more than your cooperation. Show me how good of a soldier you really are by following my orders to the letter." Danzo's voice got too low and too rough for Naruto's liking. His uncomfortableness was reaching an all-time high.

Naruto didn't even nod he just turned around and got out.

* * *

><p>"Whoa whoa wait! You're going on a mission?! Alone!?"<p>

Naruto shrugged and sheepishly smiled. "It's just a small mission Sakura. You know a hero-of-the-village mission kinda thing."

Sakura eyed him with a mixture of worry and skeptism. "If they are making you go on a mission because you're a hero then it sounds really dangerous."

"Ah! No no I requested the mission myself! Really it's nothing to be worried about I just wanted to tell you in case you needed me or something and I wasn't here."

"But you're leaving so soon? And how did you get permission? What's the mission about Naruto? And why do you have to go by yourself?"

Too many questions. Naruto found it hard enough as is to get by Danzo's questioning. He was kind of foolish to think Sakura would be different. At least she's doing this out of concern. He didn't doubt that even if doubts about others were unfortunately going through his mind.

"Well they did owe me ahehe so it wasn't hard to get permission. And don't worry it won't be a long mission so I want to get it over with as soon as possible! Um it relates to the sealing jutsu I'm working on, like outside research you know? And I'm going alone because I figure the village needs every other ninja more than I do. Wish you could come with me, you know."

Sakura smiled at that last sentence. "I wish I could go to, just to make sure you aren't alone this time when you play hero again. But Lady Tsunade..."

Naruto frowned and he and Sakura looked back at the old woman still sleeping peacefully on a single bed. All kinds of machines were hooked up to her but Naruto saw much less than before.

"Is she getting better?"

"She's not getting any worse so by that definition she's getting better. Still I can't help but feel she would be awake by now if Shizune were here."

"Sakura-" Naruto started to say. He automatically went into comfort mode when he saw her get sad. But he couldn't get more than her name out because she smiled brightly up at him.

"But I won't mope about it! I know if Shizune could see me now she'd be proud that I'm trying so hard in her absence. I have to continue to do my best!" The pink-haired girl winked. Naruto smiled back. He was happy to see her so determined and not be weighed down by the death of one of her mentors. But still he worried about her. Since he showed up he could see she was incredibly tired and he wondered if thoughts of Shizune plagued her while she worked.

"I hope you're taking care of yourself too."

"Of course I am!" She shouted. "I can't help Lady Tsunade if I'm out of it as well!"

That short temper, such a familiar sight in these times. Naruto welcomed it so much so that he decided to push it a little.

"Okay I hope so. For a second there I thought you were starting to look as old as Granny Tsunade is now so I panicked a little hehe."

"WHAT'D YOU SAY?!" Sakura's voice was so loud Naruto could've sworn Kyuubi heard it back at the apartment. He raised his hands in a placating manner the moment she raised her fist in a threatening one.

"Chill a little Sakura! My eyes were playing tricks on me! You look as cute as ever I think!" He thought about adding 'even with the stress bags under your eyes' but wisely decided not to.

That seemed to do the trick as his teammate lowered her fist and let out a satisfied. "Hmph!" but then she added,

"You still need to watch what you say. I don't know how you could ever get anyone with that kind of talk you idiot."

"Sakura I was just being honest..."

"Whatever." She then grumbled something that suspiciously contained Sai's name and Naruto inwardly laughed at being compared to that guy. But his laugh was short lived as he realized he had stuck around here longer than he meant to. God knew what Kyuubi was getting up to since the apartment was pretty clean when he left. The thought of his demon doing something stupid out of boredom filled him with fear and dread so he had to quickly end this visit.

"I gotta get going. The sooner I leave the better. See ya!" Naruto turned around to walk out but Sakura grabbed his wrist.

"Wait one more thing!"

As much as he wanted to leave Naruto almost thought that she would hug him again. But when he faced her she looked entirely too serious.

"I don't want to worry you before your mission but you have to know I heard word that there's a spy here in the medic tents."

"What?! A spy?!" The thought sounded ridiculous to Naruto. Who would honestly want to spy on them? "We may be vulnerable but we have ninjas working on overdrive how could anyone sneak in here?!"

"We're only human Naruto. Super-trained humans but humans nonetheless. We get exhausted from time to time and make mistakes. We're keeping a close eye on everything here; I'm just warning you to be careful out there."

"I should be careful?! What about you?!"

"I didn't tell you this so you'd be worried about me!"

"Well now I am worried!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Ugh Naruto I'm a trained combat-medic-ninja. I can handle myself."

"But-"

"I'm observant and can watch my own back as well as Lady Tsunade's. And need I remind you just who in this village can knock you 1000 feet away in one punch?" She asked raising her fist again. This time in a clear teasing manner. Naruto could understand her attempts to get him to calm down and she did have him there. But still she was...he didn't want to lose her too.

"Go do your mission. But be careful. If someone sent a spy here then they are not Konoha-friendly. Keep your guard up and watch your back okay? You're probably more famous outside of the village than you ever were before which puts you at high risk. So don't get killed out there. You handled Pain but...come back in one piece okay?"

Naruto wanted to argue some more but Sakura gave him a look that said her word was final. The oddness of having people you care about. You get so worried about them that sometimes you forget they worry about you too. So with a small sigh he nodded and said,

"I will. You be careful too."

Sakura nodded back and Naruto finally left the tent. He walked a few feet away and stopped. He looked back at the tent and once he made sure Sakura wouldn't come out he quickly summoned a small orange and blue frog.

"Need help so soon boss?"

"I just want you to stay here and keep an eye on things, especially this tent right here." He pointed to the tent behind him where Tsunade and Sakura were.

"If you see any trouble, reverse summon me immediately. They say there might be an enemy here so I need you be on the lookout for me."

"No problem for me boss! I've got the most watchful eye there is!" The little frog bragged as he hopped and looked around.

"One more thing. Try and stay hidden so that Sakura doesn't know you're here. If she sees you come up with a story like you wanted to help or didn't want her to get lonely or something. Just don't let her know I'm making you do this. She'll kill me if she thinks I'm worried about her."

"Sakura? The pink-haired pretty girl? K boss! But why would she be mad? Maybe she'd be flattered!"

"Yeah maybe. But just in case don't say my name!" He didn't want to take any chances.

"Alrighhhht."

"I mean it!" What was with this frog? Naruto hated it when people acted cheeky towards him when he was trying to be serious.

"I won't!"

"Ok. Remember only contact me if you see trouble. And I mean serious trouble got that? The spy is more dangerous than people here thought or Sakura can't fight back for whatever reason okay?" The thought of leaving Kyuubi outside of the village alone left him an incredibly uneasy feeling in the back of his mind which is why he wanted to emphasize that anything related to spy or Sakura getting knocked out amounted to serious trouble. But at the same time he knew he'd leave his demon's side in a heartbeat if Konoha needed him. He would just have to hope really hard Kyuubi wouldn't make the search for Pain any harder than it already is by doing something stupid like running away and making it difficult for Naruto to find him.

Naruto briefly toyed with the thought of maybe attaching a summoning-like contract to Kyuubi. Was that even possible? It would certainly make things easier on him if he could immediately reach the fox anytime he needed to...That was certainly something to think about. He didn't have time to ask Sakura to help him go to the library again so he'll have to use the summoning scrolls he already has and search for something outside of the village.

"Alright alright I get it. You can go now I can handle things here," the frog said waving Naruto off.

Naruto told himself he didn't have time to stomp on the flippant frog so he gets to hop another day uninjured. With a quick 'good-bye' he ran off and hurried towards his apartment.

Now he just needed to figure out how to sneak Kyuubi out. After the demon's first embarrassing display of stealth, Naruto wasn't too confident that Kyuubi could just follow him right out with no complications.

* * *

><p>And now that's done!<p>

Ahahaha Naruto and Kyuubi :P. The first relationship goal has been established! Trust! And Kyuubi's thoughts on the whole touching incidnent will be revealed next chapter along with more failing on his end!

Sooo I won't spoil anything but I'm so happy about the medic tent scene regarding Sakura! I wrote it before chapter 630 came out and for those who have read it you can imagine my giggly reaction when I saw I got a certain part of her character right hehe!

So that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it! Again I will try to get chapter 9 up either tonight or tmrw. That should be feasible.

Please let me know what you think!


	9. Chapter 9

Woo finally! Chapter 9!

I actually planned on uploading it today because today's my birthday :D! Yea yay!

Anyways this is a little long at over 6980 words haha. Soooo freaking sorry for the delay but in addition to the gaps I accidentally made a contradiction in this chapter and needed to iron that out. Kyuubi's character became a bit more complex than I thought :P. But typos aside I don't like to upload a chapter when it is less than perfect(as I want it to be anyway lol) so I really, really hope the delay was worth it!

There's a lot more KyuuNaru bits in here. Just saying ;P. Oh and the word 'trust' is thrown around a lot because that is a big hurdle to jump haha.

_Anon review reply_

_Y- Haha I'm gonna excuse Danzo's behavior with the fact that the consequences of Pain's attack actually stuck this time. I don't think he's happy at all about that so prepare for his extreme way of thinking to be taken to a whole new extreme! YES THANK YOU! Sakura is one of my favorite characters so getting her right is a priority! It helps that she's been a focus these last few chapters so I got more to work with haha._

_heehee I figured people would like that :P. Now you get to see Kyuubi's view of what happened. Plus some bonus touching at the end ;P.(tho that is not to say the touching in sexual in nature...). THANK YOu for your review :)!_

_Skip andyyyy- I will always continue :D! Actually MY big hurdle is deciding where to end this monster lol. And yeah one of my worries is whether Kyuubi and Naruto's relationship develops too slow. But with this chapter I think I can strike a balance. I have numerous ideas so I should be able to have them fall in love not too quickly, but not too slowly either._

_Thanks so so much for the review :D!_

And that's all.

Please enjoy update 3/3!

* * *

><p>Poor pitiful child. Kyuubi was almost embarrassed for him really. His trusting nature made this all too easy.<p>

But Kyuubi shouldn't think that lowly of him. He is confident that all humans would have trouble seeing through his ploy. He wasn't an idiot. Humans talk about 'geniuses' often but they haven't seen him at his most clever. Due to how brief their moments together were before, it was hard for him to be manipulative towards Naruto when he had a narrow time slot. But this time around, that wasn't the case.

It was so simple. There is no way Naruto would believe him if he suddenly turned around and started buttering up to the blond. That was too far beyond the realm of possibility. But if he was mean now, waited for Naruto to inevitably do his little heroism thing, and then pretended to be 'inspired' enough to change, that just might get pass his vessel.

Who was he kidding? Might. It would _definitely_ slip past Naruto's defenses. His vessel was an absolute sucker for the redeemed bad guy who has seen the light. He's been _aching_ to have another Gaara in his life since the boy was revived. He wanted to save people and help them and have them join his little hugging community of redemption. After all if the demon kid could convert others to good, then he'll prove that he was good all along to those who hated and spited him in his youth.

There shouldn't be any worries now since everyone assumed Naruto killed Pain, but look at him now.

He won't be satisfied with that. Especially since it wasn't true. Combine it with the fact that Sasuke Uchiha, or the one who got away, resisted his 'be good' speech and Naruto's ego was in a fragile state right now; prime for taking advantage of. All Kyuubi had to do was resist at first, be as mean as he has been. Then once he pretended to be redeemed as a direct result of Naruto's actions, the boy's ego will inflate so much he'll be careless. He might want to add some fibs here and there about his way of thinking as a tailed beast.

Easy. _Oh we tailed beast are always kind to those we are indebted to_. He could think of a million little myths to say. Best part is there is no way for Naruto to verify it. Kyuubi snickered at how perfect his plan was. He actually couldn't wait to test it out. It might even be easier to rely on that than relying on countering Naruto's sealing knowledge.

That just turned his snicker into full-blown laughter because it was kind of plausible. It _did_ take him a while to find that damn key even though, despite Naruto's whining, he only dipped his hand in there for a quick second. He did not feel him up or 'violate' him like he's sure Naruto imagined. He just carefully stretched up the waistband of Naruto's boxers, saw the key, and grabbed it. No felting up to be done.

Because ew that was too vulgar even for him. And to his vessel? And it was all too hilarious how Naruto worried about that when truthfully; Kyuubi felt the blond's torso up way more. Not out of any perversion or anything but out of excitement...because he realized the key had to be on Naruto's person if it wasn't in the bathroom.

It was 100% Naruto's fault. He was a ninja. He could've used better jutsu or thought of better ways to hide that key. If he did then Kyuubi wouldn't have had to run his hands all over Naruto's upper body while the blond snored in his ear. And then he wouldn't have been pulled into the first hug he had received in who knows how long when Naruto, in his sleep, reached an arm up and onto his back and pulled him down into a weak embrace.

Kyuubi didn't want to admit he was stunned for a few seconds. But he had to because he was stunned...because he was worried Naruto was going to wake up...Kyuubi did manage to break out of the hold when the kid started _snuggling_ him, which in his opinion was WAY more violating than touching the blond's penis.

Naruto started to stir a little and Kyuubi quickly put a pillow in his place and that did the trick. Thinking back to that moment, Kyuubi realized that's when his pity for his vessel reached a level it had never reached before. The boy was seriously that damn lonely. He even had friends now and he could run out of this apartment and be smiled at, complimented, and viewed with admiration instead of disdain. He wasn't ignored anymore.

Even Kyuubi could see that Naruto has improved leaps and bounds from where he started as a small child. He could probably see that better than anyone, even Naruto. Deep down the kid refused to believe that things were really improving. Objectively sure he could see that, and maybe on a conscious level he seems to fully believe that. But a part him of him was terrified that beneath the smiles of his friends were people who still hated him, still feared him, and still haven't apologized for the way they treated him which may mean they don't feel sorry at all.

Kyuubi sees things differently from that part of Naruto. Incredibly enough, he sees things in a more balanced way. Humans may treat him like trash 100% of the time, but he wasn't blind to the way they treat each other. Sometimes. And if Kyuubi got along with his vessel, he'd gladly take the time to help Naruto realize that.

The fox demon snickered at how impossible the idea of getting along with Naruto was. Yeah right. He didn't believe Naruto's little 'people can change' speech for a second...Okay maybe a _second_ but then he realized how wrong that statement was because times were much more different now than back when he was little. People can change alright, but when it comes to him they ALWAYS stay the same. To them, he's an evil power source and the only 'change' they go through in deciding whether he is meant to be controlled or killed. But if Naruto believed some ridiculous positive change was possible then why not go along with it? It was to his advantage. Especially since this sealing stuff was going to take a little longer than he first believed.

There were so many setbacks this morning. In addition to finding the key, he had to find the beginner scrolls and books as well. Naruto was smart enough to just throw everything in a messy pile and mix them up so much it wasn't possible to find the first stuff he needed to read without opening everything and looking at the first few pages. It was crafty, but it was small so of course Naruto could come up with such an idea. Kyuubi wasn't that upset over the wasted time. Much. Kyuubi then realized he was pouting and quickly stopped.

Anyways he tried to read a few books he picked up even if they were advanced, but without the former seal knowledge it was useless. He would think having Uzumakis as containers would be helpful, but thus far only Naruto's seal allowed him to see what was going on outside of his cage and it's not like spending all of those years looking at the seals holding him down did anything other than teach him what he _can't_ do when subjected by them. Humans did too much this time really. The old man only had that _one_ sealing move and that was it. Now humans have added so many different complications throughout the years and to keep up with Naruto he needed to understand all of it. Difficult since by the time he finished organizing the stuff and found what he needed his hunger got the best of him.

His first attempt at making his own ramen was poor as was his second. But like a trooper he ate both of those-blegh-cups. His third attempt apparently went much better but by then Naruto sat up and for some reason wouldn't lie back down. At the time he assumed the ramen was just as bad as the first two so he gave it to the blond. He was banking on the fact that he was even giving Naruto something was enough of a good, trustworthy deed. He didn't expect Naruto to actually like the food.

But oh well. Now he was stuck here, lying on the floor and doing like he has been doing; thinking, moving around, and observing. This was incredibly boring. Kyuubi thought once he was outside the seal a whole plethora of entertaining things would happen and he would never be as bored as he was in that cage. Boy was he wrong. The door was locked. He had a handle on walking, scooting, crawling, and other slow forms of motion. He knew how to stretch this body, though in his opinion that is seriously something Naruto needs to work on. He could stand to be more flexible. For all the other physical things like running and jumping, he needed a wider space and sad as he was to admit it, he too wasn't willing to expose himself while he was like this.

Kyuubi actually found himself wanting to do this mission for his own reasons other than to follow Naruto and make sure he doesn't get killed and steal the sealing scrolls. He just wanted to get out of this place and finally curb his boredom.

Luckily he didn't have to wait much longer. Naruto stepped in at that moment.

But such a pity. He didn't have bags of food with him. Kyuubi can't lie he hoped Naruto would've grabbed something.

"This place is...exactly how I left it?"

"You sound surprised."

"I thought you would mess things up since this place is clean now." Naruto raised a good point actually. Why didn't he think of making a mess? Even if Naruto forced him to clean up, a task he found tedious and annoying, it would've been something to do. Still it was something he could spin in his favor. It wasn't like he was going to let Naruto carry on thinking Kyuubi didn't think of the idea.

"I told you, I'm more responsible than you think. Did the meeting go okay?" He wasn't sure if Naruto fully believed him for the blond looked a little skeptical, but then maybe he did because he was sure Naruto couldn't think of a reason for Kyuubi's behavior beyond earning his trust. Naruto only answered the second part of his statement.

"I got the mission. Did you pack anything? Start packing now we gotta go."

Naruto then entered a trance it seemed. He moved hastily and almost robotically. Pulling out clothes, bags, sleeping stuff, toiletries...ramen, everything except the weapons and stuff which Kyuubi knew was in that training room. The demon didn't have to do anything as Naruto packed everything up himself with the efficiency of someone who's been doing the action for years now. He wasn't really content on waiting until Naruto unlocked the door to do something, but it looked like that was going to be the case. Because he tried the direct route:

"I'm bored."

And was ignored. He tried the indirect route:

"Can't you see me yawning. And scratching myself with my free hands?"

And was again ignored. Surprisingly, this annoyed him more than the other times he was ignored. Enough so that he got up and did something about it. He was about to fall on top the green bag that Naruto tying a sleeping bag to but then he noticed Naruto's open pocket. Didn't he have the key in there? And the blond was so distracted that he wouldn't notice. If he did well, at least he wouldn't be ignoring him anymore.

Kyuubi walked on over and squatted next to Naruto. Nothing, the human was entirely focused on tying up the sleeping bag. So Kyuubi reached into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the key and _finally_ he got a reaction. A slightly painful reaction in the form of Naruto tightly grasping his wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"It looks like you need some help. I can grab everything you need from in there while you-"

"Forget it! You want to do something? Finish tying up this sleeping bag and tie up this tent. _I'll _go and pack up everything else we need," Naruto said snatching the key from an annoyed Kyuubi's fingers and standing up. Kyuubi watched Naruto make his way over to the training room and go in before concentrating on the task Naruto gave him.

Well. He did want something to do.

Even though Naruto already started the process, his clumsy fingers didn't do a very good job finishing it. Compared to the blue bag which also held a sleeping bag, Kyuubi's work looked shoddy as if done by, well, a beginner. In his defense, never in his life has he ever had to use his five fingers to tie something. As he stared at the tent Naruto wanted him to tie, wondering if his chakra tail would do a better job, he felt small bursts of chakra coming from the training room.

His suspicions on what Naruto was doing were confirmed when Naruto walked out only carrying a handful of scrolls. So Naruto was putting his knowledge of storage seals to good use? Kyuubi had to catch up quickly. If storage seals really were the most basic things to learn then it shouldn't be too difficult.

"Aw Kyuubi! That's not right geez," Naruto commented setting the scrolls down next to his pack. Kyuubi eyed them like they were a pile of raw meat. Trial and error normally wasn't a method he employed to learn things but he felt this itching urge to just try and unseal those things. But Naruto plopped down next him, silently communicating that he'd ruin any and all of Kyuubi's chances at getting to those scrolls.

"Okay look. You take this string and-" As much as Kyuubi didn't want to pay one lick of attention to Naruto's tying lesson, he had to take advantage of any and all new skill lessons for now. He watched Naruto work with half-lidded boredom-filled red eyes and before long he was thinking thoughts unrelated to Naruto's lesson. By the time the blond finished, Kyuubi forgot half of what Naruto taught him.

"And you didn't tie up the tent like I asked!" Naruto exclaimed crawling over to the tent. The blond grumbled as he started tying up the green cloth.

"Well I messed the sleeping bag up. I just didn't want to mess that up either," Kyuubi tried. Naruto snorted as he finished.

"I'm starting to think you'd mess everything up, even carrying this stuff out of the village."

"Okay then! To prove my worth, I'll carry the sealing stuff," Kyuubi declared standing up. He knew Naruto would say no but it's always fun to try. Sure enough, Naruto rapidly moved to get in front of him.

"Noooooooooooooo you're not! And I still can't believe you got access to them, you know. And why would you tell me that anyway?!"

Kyuubi shrugged. "For once I took a gamble on your intelligence and figured you would've known when you checked the room. And eventually you would've realized you didn't have the key. I just decided to _trust_ you with the information." He winked.

"Well it backfired on you. I trust you even less now!"

Well hearing that he definitely went three steps back soured his mood a bit and at the same time made him happier. Pissing off Naruto he could already tell was going to become a favorite hobby of his along this journey. Still, remembering how _sensitive_ the boy is does mean he'll have to be careful about what he says. He doesn't want to go _too_ far back in this 'trust' progress. But he can fix this starting with getting Naruto to get a move on. This back and forth was getting them no closer to sneaking out of the village.

"But I trust you can get out us out of the village quickly and efficiently! Does that make you feel better?" He praised him at least a little. And Naruto loved it when people praised his skills. Despite what he said before, Kyuubi knew it really didn't matter who it came from. Naruto showed little reaction to the compliment other than an annoyed eyebrow raise-maybe he thought Kyuubi was being sarcastic-but he did finally buckle down and get serious.

"Okay, you're gonna have to be stealthy. I mean plenty of people are walking around now so you have to sneak by them."

"And how do I do that exactly?"

"I don't know! You're a fox crawl underground or something!"

"Not only is that the stupidest plan I've ever heard coming from you, which is saying something, it is offensive. Why don't you shut your mouth if you don't know anything about me!"

Kyuubi felt he was coming off as maybe a bit too offended. But if it got this lunkhead to start thinking clearly and stop with the petty insults so they could actually _move_ somewhere then so be it...crawl underground like a fox the _nerve_! He never even lived borough...if his memory serves him right. It has been a while since he's lived outside of human but he distinctly remembered mountains.

"Okay okay! Disguise then we'll have to disguise you. Let's see now...you could pass off as one of my shadow clones helping me carry my stuff!" Naruto smiled a large smile, as if he forgot who he was talking to.

And he looked so cute looking so _proud_ of his idea! Kyuubi almost smiled in fake excitement back just to mess with him a little. But thinking about it, the idea admittedly, it wasn't a bad one. Except: "How?"

The smile was quickly gone from Naruto's face. "With uh...you can wear my clothes and uh..."

That's right. Ignoring the fact that they would have to style Kyuubi's hair correctly, Naruto didn't carry any hair dye or contact lenses. And Kyuubi couldn't blame him for this lack of preparedness because why should he own that stuff when he had genjutsu at his disposal?

"Darn! Can't you use genjutsu?"

"Oh yeah. I'm an expert at genjutsu. It's one of my specialties."

"Really? Great then just-"

"Sarcasm you fool no I can't use genjutsu. I can only see through it." Most of it anyway. But Kyuubi decided not to let Naruto know about that bitter, little fact.

"Craaaaap!" Naruto whined pulling at his hair. "We gotta go now too! And you're in a human body now so...Errr how fast can you learn!?"

"Very," Kyuubi grinned. What a pleasant surprise! Now he will have a new technique in his arsenal! Sometimes patience really _is_ rewarding. Not that Kyuubi believed this opportunity happened because he was patient.

"Just so you know, I'm ONLY teaching you a basic transform technique got it? You can't cause any trouble with this."

On the contrary, Kyuubi could cause trouble with anything he knew. Just because Naruto didn't see much use for the nonflashy technique didn't mean Kyuubi couldn't see the many advantages of disguising himself. Many, many advantages.

"Okay just watch me closely and listen to everything I say. I don't have to tell you how to control your chakra right?"

"No no. I've got that down pat now." Sort of. At least it should be enough to learn this.

"Okay good. So first off you..."

* * *

><p>"Drop anything and I'll make you disappear," Naruto shouted over his shoulder at him.<p>

They were making their way through the village now. Of course Naruto was carrying the pack with the seals and weapons and the pack with one sleeping bag and the food and he was stuck carrying the tent, the other sleeping bag and pretty much everything else on his back. His shoulders were starting to hurt immensely because really when has he EVER needed to carry objects so heavy in relation to his strength and body weight? Never. Once again he found himself _cursing this stupid body_!

"Hey!" He whispered harshly so that Naruto could hear him. He was throwing his vessel a bone here by being quiet. Admittedly, it would make things hard on him too if he were to get Naruto and him caught, but by God he was willing to make things really, really hard for his vessel if he didn't listen to him now. "Can't you put these is storage seals too!?"

"What's the matter clone-me? I could carry those things easily so can't you?"

Kyuubi growled at the cheeky and unhelpful response.

"SHH!"

"Don't you shush me. I'll drop everything right now, then what?"

"Ugh. Think of it as endurance training. For this mission you'll have to endure a lot more you know."

Yeah but what was with this needless endurance? If Naruto could just conveniently put everything into light scrolls with his storage seals then what was the point of all this? Kyuubi rolled his eyes.

"I saw that! Come on you said you had something to prove didn't you? Well right now I'm as unimpressed as I can be you know. I know you're used to sitting on your lazy butt all day but this seriously shouldn't be hard."

Kyuubi wanted to strangle him now. _Lazy_? Him? He was _bored_ and he wanted some fun is all! But fine Naruto wanted him to actually prove himself through such a needless task?

"Alright fine. I'll _endure_ through this just to prove to you something that should've been proven years ago. I'm a good help. After all you've been entitled to my p-"

Naruto turned around and sent him a glare that had him stop talking. "Be quiet! You have _no_ idea who's listening!"

"What does that mean?"

"...I'll tell you later."

Kyuubi raised an eyebrow as Naruto continued walking. He watched the blond reach the front gate and tell the guard the orders from some man named Danzo. For some reason, there was a large spike of negative emotion coming from the blond when he mentioned that Danzo guy's name. And maybe for that same reason, that negative emotion _didn't_ go down immediately afterwards. It sort of hovered there around him for a while. Of course the guard couldn't tell, but to Kyuubi it was incredibly weird. His vessel was no slouch in the 'making enemies' department as he knew first hand, but he loved Konoha more than his loved his own life. The idea of someone from this village drawing not just simple-minded ire or annoyance from him, but this kind of negativity actually struck his curiosity.

Naruto finished talking to the guard and waved him to follow him. They didn't immediately pick up the pace once outside. In fact they kept up their slow, boring walking until they were several feet into the surrounding forest and out of the guard's hearing range. Then Naruto finally stopped and turned towards him.

"Quick tell me which direction Pain is in. We need to get as far from this village as possible."

Oh yeah that problem. Kyuubi actually gave up searching for the guy the moment he could tell Naruto was asleep in favor of searching for the key. He could probably try again later but seeing as how he didn't care about killing this guy nearly as much as Naruto did, Kyuubi didn't mind throwing Naruto off track a little. So he pointed in a random direction and said, "Over there."

Naruto believed him.

"Okay," he nodded adjusting his backpack. "Let's hop through the trees. It'll be faster than just running."

In Kyuubi's mind it wouldn't. He could be pretty fast with just a burst of chakra. But he had no idea where Naruto wanted to stop and with his chakra level so low compared to what it used to be, it's best not to rely on that when he could have to use it for later. Besides, secretly he was kind of curious about tree-hopping. He hadn't been able to hop along _anything_ since he was a young kit. Once he grew up however, nothing short of islands were large enough. And how could he find the time to hop around like he used to when there was hate festering somewhere or some human was trying to control, kill, and/or seal him away?

Naruto expertly jumped into the closest tree and started moving pretty quickly.

Kyuubi's first attempt at jumping into the same tree however, nearly knocked down the entire thing.

* * *

><p>Stupid tree-hopping. Kyuubi hated this.<p>

"You canNOT be this clumsy! Come on!" Naruto shouted as Kyuubi jumped and failed yet again to grab onto a branch. He fell and let out an 'oof!' when he hit the ground. On the bright side the packs he was carrying softened his fall. On the dark side, _Naruto_.

Kyuubi lifted his head and snarled at the blond sitting up in the tree, "Let's see YOU change body types and then exercise perfect coordination! Either have some of that 'sympathy' you almost always have or go ahead without me!" He could easily find him for he could always sense where his chakra-and by extension Naruto-is.

But now came conquering the art of tree-hopping. These damn wooden sticks used to literally be sticks to him. Jumping around with precision wasn't new to him, but jumping and worrying about where he was _landing_ was. He was so big before that it was never really a problem if he missed landing on a house or the edge of a cliff or whatever. _'But now!' _Kyuubi thought sighing. This body at least allows him to maneuver on all fours while jumping but that only made the action more comfortable, not necessarily easier.

Once he managed to somehow roll onto his feet he made another leap into a tree. That wasn't hard. Now he just needed to move forward. He readied himself for jumping onto the branch Naruto was standing on. Actually he was surprised his vessel was still here watching him. Maybe he is getting some secret amusement out of his constant failures. Whatever. He'll make it this time. The only thing Kyuubi has failed at more than 4 times was breaking out of his vessels.

So crouching low he spread his legs apart and firmly grasped the branch he was on. Leaning forward he concentrated hard. His eyesight was keen, an excellence far superior to normal human eyesight. But due to his size he realized he needed to do a few more calculations in deciding where to jump. Once he got that down, he decided to add a little chakra to his hands and feet for extra bounciness. He leaped. This should do it.

Or not.

"GAH!" Naruto yelped as he hopped onto another branch. Coward. He could've caught him.

By miracles of miracles Kyuubi actually _touched_ the branch he was aiming for and practically landed on it...only to smash right through it and smash painfully onto the ground. His face got the worst of it. That definitely needed some healing when he stopped eating dirt.

"This isn't working," Naruto finally said slapping his hand on his forehead in exasperation. Kyuubi then felt him hop down and land right in front of him. To the fox's amazement Naruto actually put his hands on his shoulders and pushed him upright. If Kyuubi didn't know any better, he'd almost mistake that as an act of _kindness_. But surely...Naruto is only helping him up so they could move faster.

The dirt in his eyes was starting to sting and it made things blurry so Kyuubi quickly wiped his face with his hands and at the same time healed himself. Once he could see clearly, he looked at Naruto. The blond then looked grave, as if he just made a great decision. He made a real shadow clone and handed it everything he was carrying.

"We have no choice. We have to get out of here quickly so..." Naruto turned around so his back was facing him and he got on one knee making Kyuubi bemused. His vessel held his arms out behind him and bowed his head. He made one command.

"Get on my back."

"What?"

"Get on my back!" Naruto repeated. "It'll take too long if you keep this up. Just get on my back and I'll do the moving for the both of us."

Was Naruto kidding him with this right now? A piggy-back ride? Of all the solutions he can come up with, _this_ is the best one? Well, this is the same boy who thought his boxers was an excellent hiding place so Kyuubi really can't expect much. But still he'd almost rather run. He **hated** it when humans tried to ride on him so why would he want to ride on a human? Strange didn't even begin to describe what that would be like.

"Why can't I just run? I can do that MUCH faster than this stupid tree-hopping!"

"Uh-uh! Still don't trust you and I'd rather focus on where I'm landing than whether or not you're still following me."

"I'll follow you!"

"Kyuubi. Shut your mouth, take your arms and wrap them around my neck. I'll be much faster and I'll waste less chakra."

Why insist on _this_ mode of travel for him? And why himself? Surely he could have his shadow clones...no Kyuubi remembered the horrendous pile. Even he would rather stick with the original Naruto. Kyuubi glanced at the shadow clone still standing there holding the backpack and other stuff. It grinned at him and stuck out his tongue. _'Yep...'_ He thought looking irritated. Sticking with the original Naruto he was. Besides that, the other 'pros', lack of damage to his body and not wasting chakra, also sounded incredibly appealing considering how much he had to heal himself.

He will not be bested by this 'art of tree-hopping'. But he'll conquer it another day. Naruto gets ten times more annoying when he's impatient.

"Come on I'm dying of old age here! Don't make me knock you out and carry you!"

Case in point. But at least, Kyuubi grinned, he was once again the source of his irritation. He adjusted his backpack a little and slowly leaned onto Naruto's back and wrapped his arms around the blond's tender and exposed neck. His tan, fleshy, exposed neck. The shirt he was borrowing from Naruto had no sleeves so he could feel how warm it was. He could even feel the _beatbeatbeat_ of his vulnerable pulse...was it him or was it speeding up a little? Kyuubi then realized that his mouth was right next to Naruto's ear.

He could bite it off. Or blow into it. Or growl menacingly. Or snore obnoxiously into it like how Naruto did to him. Or something. Kyuubi was also hyper aware of what leaning on Naruto's body felt like. The demon already knew how firm his back was but to actually be pressed against it felt...strange.

So...this is what being on a human is like?

He let out a gasp when Naruto wrapped his arms around his legs and hiked him up and then stood up. And okay, it made him nervous to be off of the ground in someone else's hold. His sharp incisor brushed against Naruto's ear which may explain why the blond suddenly stiffened and shouted,

"Watch it!"

But Kyuubi was **incredibly** nervous because it was hard enough before trusting Naruto to keep them both alive. Kyuubi actually couldn't even do that because he shoved his chakra over to Naruto all the time. And now he needed to trust Naruto would carry him, at a great height, through trees, and not drop him. He was _nervous_ so he blurted out,

"It's a warning! Drop me and you'll lose an ear!" And then Kyuubi, as always, started hating his body. To be specific, he hated his vocal chords. His voice trembled or cracked or however you would describe it and he was sure Naruto could hear the fear in his tone. In his normal body, he would be able to control that. He wouldn't even be scared-_nervous_. He also would've been able to stop his arms from tightening a little when Naruto suddenly jumped into a tree. At least he didn't scream, although he felt like it because the ground was so far away and he was so _small_ and it was somehow scarier this time around and he was extra positive Naruto could feel his heart beating a mile a minute.

He had half a mind to tell Naruto to PUT HIM DOWN IMMEDIATELY but Naruto then tightened his hold on Kyuubi's legs.

"Don't worry. I won't drop you," he said in a low tone. Not low as in threatening, but low as in...soothing? Was he seriously trying to comfort him? He half expected the clone, who was right in front of them, to be laughing but when he somehow managed to stop staring at the ground and slowly look at the clone, it was smiling at him in a reassuring way.

Well this...was new.

"Loosen your hold around my neck a bit."

Oh. That explains it. Naruto just wanted him to not be afraid so he didn't choke him out of fear or something. Okay. That made sense. It took some great effort to loosen his hold the tiniest bit but Naruto didn't say anything as he and his clone got a move on.

Kyuubi felt like one of his terrified victims at first. How embarrassing. But as the minutes past and he was still on Naruto's back and NOT lying on the ground in pain he grew more relaxed. It took him a while to realize Naruto was even carefully avoiding small annoying branches so that _neither_ of them would accidentally get smacked. He was silent, because he was trying to determine a reason for this. Because he knew Naruto and Naruto was a human and humans are all the same towards him; no kindness allowed. Naruto was silent too.

It would be a good hour or so before he stopped and decided to settle down for dinner and sleep. Then and only then did conversation finally start to flow.

"I was honestly surprised you chose to stick by me and offer assistance. I guess a part of you is still unpredictable to me."

"Tch. It was just getting a bit sad seeing you fall on your face so much. I hate you but once I saw your pride in the gutter I decided you deserved a little help."

"Ridiculous. My pride was just fine."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "_You're welcome!_ Can't you even thank me for carrying you?"

"...I would've preferred a more comfortable mode of transport and I wished I could've moved on my own."

"Are you insulting me again?!"

Kyuubi grinned lazily and set his empty bowl down, leaning back on his arms. "Still I guess it was simply the best you could offer at the time. Considering your body type."

"My body type?"

"Slender," Kyuubi said. Naruto spat out his food.

"SLENDER?! I'm not slender! Look I'm packing muscles!" And to emphasize this Naruto put down his bowl and flexed his bicep, slapping it with his other hand for good measure. Kyuubi simply chuckled at the cute display and shook his head.

"Relax sensitive. I only mean slender in comparison. Your muscles are decent but in comparison to say, Lee, you are slender."

Naruto snorted with a glare and crossed his arms. "Who are you to judge people's body types?"

"Well, I _am_ a carnivore. Or was. Point is, I used to eye humans every time I dealt with them and ones with the biggest muscles packed the most protein. That's how I'm sure."

"Ewww!" Naruto looked disgusted. Kyuubi shrugged. He shouldn't have asked if he didn't want an answer. For example if he didn't want to know which humans he decided to crush, he really shouldn't ask, "What did you do to the humans you didn't want to eat?"

"I'm also saying 'ewwwww' because of your hair you know. We have to change it I can't stand looking at it much longer. And it'll cause problems if we have to go through a village or something."

"Don't you like my luscious locks?" Kyuubi asked fingering a strand. He had to admit, by human standards his hair looked horrendous. But now that he had genjutsu at his disposal why did it matter? Well, then again...did he _really_ want to be wasting chakra simply for aesthetic purposes?

"You look like a witch that just crawled out of a dark cave for the first time in 100 years," Naruto flatly stated. Kyuubi laughed what sounded like a carefree laugh, like Naruto was a good friend who just said a hilarious joke.

"Well just replace cave with human vessel and witch with 'demon who's never had a human body and thus human hair to worry about' and you've got yourself an accurate description of my situation! My how perceptive you are!" His tone was tinged with a little sarcasm, because he wasn't sure if Naruto's naivety amused or infuriated him more. It was easier to 'think' at least while he was happy and ignoring his anger for the time being and he needs to 'think' as much as he can in this situation.

Like right now, he's thinking but not coming up with any reason for why Naruto was staring at him like that.

"What?" He asked.

"You laughed-um no wait um..." What was his vessel trying to say? Did laughing like an idiot somehow help Kyuubi gain his trust a little? If so he should practice that. But Naruto continued with something else.

"Um what do you mean by accurate?"

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

"I'm not 100-years-old so what cage are you talking about?"

Oh...Oops.

"W-Were you sealed somewhere else-in someone else before me?" Naruto asked. He looked curious. He probably was just curious but it annoyed Kyuubi immensely because why were the questions about his life coming _now_ when there is still no real reason for Naruto to learn about his life? Naruto has never been curious before. Could it be he was only asking because Kyuubi now had a 'human face' and thus it was easier to see him not as a destructive power force, but living being with a past?

Kyuubi knows Naruto. He wouldn't put it past him to think that way.

So he bared his teeth, lied on the ground and rolled over so his back was facing Naruto. If he kept staring at the curiosity on the blond's face he'd do something he'd regret.

"I was lying you gullible idiot!" He snarled.

"No you weren't!" Naruto shouted back to his surprise. He figured by now that insults or speaking angrily would turn Naruto away.

"Don't play me for a fool!" And Kyuubi could just tell without even looking that Naruto was just pointing at him with that righteous glare on his face. "I can tell you're lying right now when you say you're lying!"

Oh bravo, Kyuubi thought rolling his eyes. But when getting into specifics, he wasn't lying. Naruto's body held the first cage-like seal he's ever been in. Bad, but at least he could move his limbs and his tails weren't in a constant state of soreness.

"Stop hiding things from me." Kyuubi could hear Naruto's voice practically tremble, signaling his increasing anger the longer Kyuubi went without answering.

His demands weren't going to be answered anytime while he was alive. Not even for that stupid trust. Kyuubi's past, what he's been through, it just didn't feel like something Naruto needed to know. It didn't feel like something he _wanted_ Naruto to know. No matter how much it directly affected his life so far, Naruto could easily go on living without another thought geared towards this so long as Kyuubi stayed unsealed and got his power back. The masked man and everything associated with him were primarily _Kyuubi's _problems. Problems he wanted to solve without Naruto's unnecessary and misguided help. And even if what he knew didn't affect Naruto in the least bit...everything Kyuubi knew has to be _volunteered_ to Naruto. It cannot be forced from his mouth.

And right now, Kyuubi doesn't trust Naruto nearly enough to give out that sensitive information.

"I was lying you naive fool! Do you find that so hard to believe? Now drop it!" He was too angry to focus on being convincing, which probably meant he was hardly convincing at all. But he didn't care in the least bit. Anger turned Naruto away and it should work now if he sees that Kyuubi won't budge on this matter. The demon is not saying anything, he refuses to.

Naruto was silent, too silent, for a long time. He was thinking of something,

"Whatever secrets you're hiding from me, I'll find them all out! Guaranteed!"

Oh great. Once Naruto makes a declaration he _always_ follows through know matter what. Admittedly Kyuubi had his own big mouth to blame for blabbing things that he should've known would catch Naruto's attention. But just because Kyuubi knew this, didn't mean he should roll over and give up so easily. For he can be stubborn too and just because Naruto now has a reason to be more annoying than ever, didn't mean he would get what he wanted.

Life's all about not getting everything you want anyway.

* * *

><p>And finished!<p>

Yeah the major block I had was Kyuubi's view on humans, specifically on how Naruto's status had changed. He obviously hates them all, but if he's seen everything Naruto has gone through, then had to have noticed that Naruto has improved his standing and made friends who stand by his side. But he hates humans so...I just went for a more balanced view :P.

Kyuubi and Naruto are similar yet different and that is fun. Right now Kyuubi's problem is he's using 'I know Naruto' as an excuse to brush all of his small acts of kindness off as having less-then-kind intentions behind them. He's doing this to justify his 'all humans suck' mindset because if he makes Naruto an exception, won't he have to give exceptions to others? Probably not but he don't know that lol ;P. He just can't individualize humans that way(by power yes he can individualize them. But otherwise no).

..Hm what 'advantages' could Kyuubi be thinking of when it comes to genjutsu?*coughsexyjutsu*cough* It's gonna be fun I assure you!

Also Naruto had quite a turnaround in the middle. It should be pretty obvious he learned something new about Kyuubi then and there and that will be reflected in the next chapter! That's also what I mean about not moving too slow on their relationship development. I DID think of Kyuubi acting a wee bit differently. Okay I alot differently, but then that idea hit me and it worked and was also too good to pass up. Next time they do this(you know if there is a next time :X) you may see a much more _relaxed_ part of Kyuubi's personality come out hehehe!

As for the 'you knows', yeah they'll be peppered throughout Naruto's speech. I find it easier than using believe it and I KNOW I'll get to the Kushina meeting so...that's there.

Finally, as for Kyuubi's plan to use 'myths' to his advantage...LOL guess which tailed beast is going to ruin THAT fun?

Okay so now I will focus my efforts on October 10th. And then after that I will decide between Little Terror, Cheater Cheater, and Seas.

Hope you enjoyed the triple update despite the delay :D! Please let me know what you think!


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